Inside the Qantas
investment engine

Basis points matter, according to Andrew Spence, chief investment officer of the $6-billion Qantas Superannuation Plan, because the volumes of money in superannuation are “enormous.” He is not talking about incremental investment gains on billions of dollars of invested capital. He’s speaking about saving money. Specifically, the $1.42 million that the fund saved in the … Read more

Mercer leads ESG

Mercer will integrate its proprietary environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings across all of its manager-search and performance data, cementing ESG as a key investment consideration. The consultant rates more than 20,000 strategies, oversees more than $5 trillion of assets under advice and has $60 billion in its multi-manager products. Mercer has led the consulting … Read more

BELSH an outperformer

Difficult market conditions and internal uncertainty at BlackRock have not hampered the performance of the fund manager’s BlackRock Equitised Long Short Fund (BELSH), which outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index by 13 per cent in the year to June 30. The fund is ranked number one over the one, two, three and ten years to … Read more

FEAL: the post-retirement challenge

The industry should stop looking for the silver-bullet post-retirement solution, with service providers needing to tailor products to the specific needs of members, the Funds Executives Association Limited (FEAL) conference heard last week. Post-retirement and the challenges it poses for member retention were a key focus, as heads of funds gathered in Sydney for FEAL’s … Read more

The search for yield

Large institutional investors in Asia and Europe are looking to broaden their allocation to income-generating assets beyond traditional government bonds, a new study of reveals. Allocations to investment grade and high yield bonds, equity dividend-focused strategies and real estate will increase over the next five years, the authors of The Age of Income predict. The … Read more

The search for yield

Large institutional investors in Asia and Europe are looking to broaden their allocation to income-generating assets beyond traditional government bonds, a new study of reveals. Allocations to investment grade and high yield bonds, equity dividend-focused strategies and real estate will increase over the next five years, the authors of The Age of Income predict. The … Read more

Tribeca macro fund gains first institutional investor

A new global macro hedge fund managed by Tribeca Investment Partners has raised capital from an Australian financial institution. Tribeca, a Sydney-based fund manager, now oversees $45 million in its Global Total Return Fund after garnering its first injection of institutional capital. It declined to name the investor. The fund, which aims to beat the … Read more

Tribeca macro fund gains first institutional investor

A new global macro hedge fund managed by Tribeca Investment Partners has raised capital from an Australian financial institution. Tribeca, a Sydney-based fund manager, now oversees $45 million in its Global Total Return Fund after garnering its first injection of institutional capital. It declined to name the investor. The fund, which aims to beat the … Read more

AIST: tax relief to spur
more mergers

Incoming laws preventing tax losses in superannuation mergers will spur more funds to unite as they face greater compliance workloads, according to an industry peak body. The draft legislation, aiming to allow merging super funds to offset investment losses against future capital gains tax (CGT), will trigger the latent plans of many funds to join … Read more

Insurance risk for
merging funds

While Health Super and First State Super boasted a “cultural and strategic fit” when the two funds first announced a merger at the end of 2010, they still had a lot of work to do to join the two plans together. Twenty months or so on from the announcement, getting members on the same page in … Read more

Joint working groups
secure super mergers

The government’s decision to formalise capital-gains-tax rollover relief to help super funds merge removes a key obstacle for those organisations looking to join forces with others. However, even with this change, merging two super funds is no walk in the park. Just how challenging the process can be was highlighted in late May when Equipsuper … Read more

Nick Sherry chairs FNZ

Nick Sherry, a former senator for Tasmania who resigned at the end of June, will take up the role as chairman of FNZ with immediate effect. FNZ provides technology services to a range of local institutional clients, including AMP, UBS and National Australia Bank. The chief executive officer of FNZ’s Australasian operations, Martin Jennings, says … Read more