While effective product functions may seem commonsensical, my observation is that investment organisations often struggle with this. Products are generally developed to exploit a perceived market and/or investment opportunity and, while attractive to the business in isolation, when measured against other comparable opportunities may not represent the optimal use of an organisation’s capital. In addition, due primarily … Read more
While it’s difficult to find evidence of a direct relationship between economic growth and equity returns, it is possible to explain how news stories – such as those about economic growth – affect market sentiment. The importance of sentiment Market sentiment is the biggest driver of investment returns in the short-to-medium term. As investors, we usually … Read more
Bryan Gray, in charge of JPMorgan’s custody sales and customer relationships in Australia and New Zealand, has three women working flexible hours for him as relationship managers. By lore, relationship managers are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But Gray seems remarkably liberal about working hours. “They have great relationships with … Read more
JPMorgan is seeking to do away with faxes. The bank’s asset-management clients are being encouraged to adopt computer-based automated fund-transaction technology called fund order routing and settlement services. Since March 12, JPMorgan clients with 400 investment accounts have been using the technology instead of writing a fax to the bank’s custodial department to buy or … Read more
ASX, the owner and operator of the Australian stock market, expects 100 exchange traded funds (ETFs) by June 2013. “I’d be surprised if we weren’t at 100 by this time next year,” says Richard Murphy, general manager of capital markets at ASX. “There is not one big Australian fund manager not looking at ETFs.” Still, … Read more
Access Capital Advisers, the US$3.2-billion infrastructure investor, has bought a 70-per-cent stake in LBC Terminals Jersey from Australia’s Challenger Infrastructure Fund and Challenger Life. Canberra-based Access Capital will own about 2.7 million cubic meters of tank storage facilities for bulk liquid-chemical products that have an enterprise value of US$1 billion. The 11 terminals are located … Read more
Last month Andrew Day, chief executive of Hastings Funds Management, brought most of his 100 colleagues, who work as far afield as London and San Antonio, Texas, to Melbourne to think about the infrastructure investor’s goals. For two days Hastings staff discussed how to transform the $6.5-billion fund manager into a more international company. “As … Read more
In the Sydney offices of Zeptonics near Circular Quay, books by the Dalai Lama sit alongside those by Isaac Asimov. Like the famed science-fiction writer, Zeptonics’s staff is dreaming of new technology that will revolutionise trading on Wall Street, hoping it is seamlessly adopted by asset managers, brokers and high-frequency traders. Today Zeptonics unveils its … Read more
Omega Global Investors, a fixed-income asset manager, has won a $170-million mandate from Local Government Super to invest in sustainable assets. The $6-billion superannuation fund and Melbourne-based Omega have developed a strategy over nine months to make bond investments along environmental, social and governance lines that seek to reinforce the United Nations-backed Principals for Responsible … Read more
Bennelong Funds Management, the boutique fund-management group, has hired Jeff Phillips as its chief financial officer. At Melbourne-based Bennelong, Phillips will head a finance team that has recently expanded. Hamish Wood, formerly a finance manager at GLG Partners in London, is now group-finance manager. Nicole Hammond is the senior fund accountant. She worked at consultants … Read more
Superannuation funds are under pressure as investor behaviour changes, particularly because of technology, says Andrew Baker, managing partner at asset management consultants Tria Investment Partners. “Business models of super funds are under a lot of pressure and the degree to which they are has probably been underestimated,” says Baker. “Regulatory changes and markets have been … Read more
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Investment Magazine provides in-depth, monthly analysis of trends and developments for all the businesses in which superannuation funds engage‚ including asset allocation, investment manager selection, custody and fund accounting, member administration, group insurance and compliance.
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land upon which Conexus Financial sits, the Cadigal of the Eora Nation. We recognise their continuing connection and unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and community. We pay our deepest respects to them and their culture, and to Elders both past and present.
