Equipsuper stops merger with Vision Supermerger

Equipsuper Superannuation Fund has halted its merger with Vision Super because it felt its investment team was not going to be supported. Equipsuper manages $4.6 billion in assets, of which about $2.1 billion is managed by external fund managers and $2.5 billion is managed by its chief investment officer and eight others. “The investment team … Read more

Equipsuper, Vision Supermerger off

Equipsuper Superannuation Fund has halted its merger with Vision Super because it felt its investment team was not going to be supported. Equipsuper manages $4.6 billion in assets, of which about $2.1 billion is managed by external fund managers and $2.5 billion is managed by its chief investment officer and eight others. “The investment team … Read more

Axioms and action for
asset allocation

Recently David Neal, chief investment officer of the Australian Government Future Fund, reportedly said: “The Future Fund operates as a single portfolio… rather than breaking allocation into various sectors as is traditionally done. …Every idea should instead be evaluated against every other idea with strategies directly compared to assess the marginal benefit of where each … Read more

Super system needs new frame to manage outcomes

Dr Ken Henry’s comments at the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) Investment Interchange debate entitled ‘Should the super industry invest more in fixed interest?’ have re-ignited the discussion about the optimal portfolio mix of stocks and bonds in a superannuation account. His comments are important in that they strike at the heart of … Read more

Super funds must change, says Tria

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

Pimco’s John Wilson treads his own path

John Wilson says he never studied economics and financial markets at university. And that, he says, has enabled him and his colleagues build bond-investor Pacific Investment Management’s assets in Australia to $32 billion in 15 years. “I understand what we sell to people is belief,” says Wilson, who looks more like an art-gallery owner with … Read more

Stephen Bramley joins Treasury Group

Stephen Bramley, the former head of institutional sales at Mercer in Australia, has joined boutique fund manager-backer Treasury Group as director of distribution. Andrew McGill. Treasury’s chief executive, says Bramley’s appointment has heralded a reorganisation in Treasury Group’s sales team. Peter Walsh, formerly head of retail distribution, has been appointed a director of distribution and … Read more

Brian Henderson to leave Perpetual

Brian Henderson, the executive in charge of marketing and communications at Perpetual will leave the $23-billion asset manager. Henderson, a Canadian, will return to his homeland, possibly to Toronto, for “family reasons,” according to a Perpetual spokesman. He joined Perpetual in June 2011 and is responsible for developing marketing and advertising. “He will be still … Read more

Balmain Funds seek $500 million from super

“Balmain boys don’t cry,” former New South Wales Premier Neville Wran once famously remarked. Commercial real-estate-debt manager Balmain Funds, which started in the inner-west Sydney suburb in 1979, is not tearfully pleading for $500 million from superannuation funds. Its planned five-year closed-end fund will lend money to industrial, retail and commercial property investor and developers … Read more

AMP CEO: 2008 changed asset management

Craig Dunn, AMP’s chief executive, says the 2008 global financial crisis has perhaps changed asset managers’ relationships with their customers forever. “People are less trusting than they once were,” says Dunn, 48. “There is a lot of focus on liquidity.” Dunn, who became chief executive officer in January 2008, says now consumers of financial products … Read more

Rob Adams to head Henderson in Australia

Rob Adams, who for eight years was the Challenger Funds Management chief executive, has been hired by the London-based $103-billion asset manager Henderson Global Investors to head its business in Australia. “It has been part of our strategy to grow our global presence by building out into this key market,” says Henderson CEO Andrew Formica, … Read more

Rob Adams to head Henderson in Australia

Rob Adams, who for eight years was the Challenger Funds Management chief executive, has been hired by the London-based $103-billion asset manager Henderson Global Investors to head its business in Australia. “It has been part of our strategy to grow our global presence by building out into this key market,” says Henderson CEO Andrew Formica, … Read more