QIC appoints Damien Frawley CEO

Queensland Investment Corp. hired Damien Frawley as chief executive of the $60.2 billion asset manager. Frawley, who is in charge of BlackRock Australia, will join Brisbane-based QIC July 1 after leaving BlackRock sometime before that date. Frawley will replace Doug McTaggart who announced his intention to retire last year. QIC says it is the third-largest … Read more

Brogden expects more fund mergers

As many as six foreign asset managers come through the doors of the Financial Services Council every year interested in acquiring a stake in an Australian fund manager in order to enter an $1.8 trillion market. “Four to six times a year foreign fund managers come through our doors seeking opportunities to enter the market,” … Read more

Australian banks may take stake in new exchange

Money Market and Debt Exchange Ltd., Australia’s first electronic money market repurchase agreement and interest rate derivative exchange, will invite the country’s biggest banks to take as much as a 50 per cent stake in the company. Money Market and Debt Exchange are demonstrating their electronic platform to Australian banks and investment banks. It doesn’t … Read more

Zebra Capital to sell first Australian fund

John Holmgren laughs when he is asked if he is related to Super Bowl winning coach Mike Holmgren. But John Holmgren shares the Cleveland Browns president’s obsession with figures and strategy. He draws them all over documents so the finished product resembles a playbook the Browns, Packers or Seahawks may use. Holmgren is president of … Read more

IFM dismisses brokers, analyst forecasts

Industry Funds Management’s Clyde Haldane says stock brokers don’t like him. “The dealers hate us,” says the executive director, listed equities at Melbourne-based IFM. “We buy or sell one stock a year.” Haldane says he has been thinking about long-term investing for 15 years but has only been putting his theories into practise seven years. … Read more

Angelo Gordon’s Australian love affair

Marsha Roth remembers a time on Wall Street not so long ago when a woman who wanted work could only get a job as a typist. One of the original 15 members of Angelo Gordon & Co., Roth is now a senior managing director and probably very wealthy. She has seen the New York-based firm’s … Read more

ASIC wants “bad apples” out of finance

The Australian Securities & Investments Commission wants to ensure “bad apples” in finance are culled. The regulator, that enforces company and financial services law, is seeking to be more assertive. ASIC will have a “proactive, regulatory approach,” says commissioner Peter Kell. Regulators will be “more forward looking” in addressing risk. Kell, citing an ANZ survey, … Read more

AMP changes manager of statutory funds

AMP has appointed a specialist unit of its funds management arm to invest the combined pool of statutory assets resulting from its merger with AXA Asia Pacific. The multi-asset group, a unit of AMP Capital Investors aiming to develop customised investment strategies, now manages the AMP Statutory Life Funds and insurance provisions of AXA, a … Read more

Clarius hiring findings dire

Hiring in asset management in the first half of this year is expected to be stagnant but there may be cause for optimism in the second half, a study by employment firm Clarius Group says. There was no recruitment in the Christmas-New Year period. In February there has been very “moderate requirement,” says Paul Barbaro, … Read more