At a time when investors have become cautious about immediate prospects for private equity, but are bullish on corporate debt, a new asset sub-class seems to be emerging – private debt. Specialists in the field say that assessing companies for debt instruments requires a different set of skills to that of private equity investments. Causeway Asset Management, a private debt manager formed in 2003, is offering a new strategy for Australian institutional investors, which will focus on the SME corporate debt market. Until 2007, Causeway focused on running proprietary portfolios for its joint-venture partners, including a Canadian consortium bank.
TAA pioneer Peter Higgs branches into global equities
Tactical Global Management (TGM), the specialist Australianowned asset allocation manager, has diversified its business through the launch of a market-neutral global equity fund. The TGM Tactical Global Equity Fund will be run from the firm’s London office by a new team including Hicham Najem, Priya Parameswaran and Adrian Luck, reporting to the firm’s founder, Peter Higgs, who is also based in London.
TAA pioneer Peter Higgs branches into global equities
Tactical Global Management (TGM), the specialist Australianowned asset allocation manager, has diversified its business through the launch of a market-neutral global equity fund. The TGM Tactical Global Equity Fund will be run from the firm’s London office by a new team including Hicham Najem, Priya Parameswaran and Adrian Luck, reporting to the firm’s founder, Peter Higgs, who is also based in
London.
Scale helps Sunsuper cut fees, keep big pension accounts
A combination of scale and forecast cost savings of running member administration and financial planning inhouse enabled the $12 billion Sunsuper to make a recent fee cut across pension accounts. The move echoes BUSS(Q)’s move two years ago to abolish all fees for allocated pensioners, although that has failed to attract as many of the high account balances as was hoped. In March, Sunsuper announced a 0.1 per cent reduction in fees, to 0.25 per cent, for the first $300,000 of pension accounts.
Scale helps Sunsuper cut fees, keep big pension accounts
A combination of scale and forecast cost savings of running member administration and financial planning inhouse enabled the $12 billion Sunsuper to make a recent fee cut across pension accounts. The move echoes BUSS(Q)’s move two years ago to abolish all fees for allocated pensioners, although that has failed to attract as many of the high account balances as was hoped. In March, Sunsuper announced a 0.1 per cent reduction in fees, to 0.25 per cent, for the first $300,000 of pension accounts.
Sydney manager seeded with $115m to ease your liquidity stress
With $115 million in seed funding from an offshore equity partner, Sydney-based Shearwater Capital has begun targeting illiquid credit and special situations investment opportunities in the domestic corporate and real estate sectors. In June 2008, the manager, whose four co-founders have experience in both funds management and investment banking, was seeded by the US$3 billion Reservoir Capital Group, a US manager that invests stakes in new private equity and hedge fund managers, in addition to running its own portfolios.
Sydney manager seeded with $115m to ease your liquidity stress
With $115 million in seed funding from an offshore equity partner, Sydney-based Shearwater Capital has begun targeting illiquid credit and special situations investment opportunities in the domestic corporate and real estate sectors. In June 2008, the manager, whose four co-founders have experience in both funds management and investment banking, was seeded by the US$3 billion Reservoir Capital Group, a
US manager that invests stakes in new private equity and hedge fund managers, in addition to running its own portfolios.
Lessons from a fund merger: Maritime case study
With more mergers between super funds tipped for the next few years due to action on capital gains tax relief, NAB Custodian Services and KPMG are presenting a timely case study with Maritime Super, the result of the merger between SERF and Seafarers’ super funds.
Ex-Mercer Oz equities head returns to fold
Mercer’s former head of Australian equities research, who left in 2006 to join HSBC Investments, has rejoined Mercer in a senior research role.
Ray King hires two senior investment consultants
Ray King’s Sovereign Investment Research has replenished its ranks with two well known institutional investment figures.
Aussie administrator bags $45bn South African client
South Africa’s third-largest investments manager, STANLIB, will use software from an Australian funds administration vendor to perform fund processing functions across its institutional and retail businesses.
Much talk, scarce action from funds on climate change investing
The financial crisis and negative member returns have sidelined many super funds’ plans to combat the risks of climate change, but commitments to factor these risks into investment portfolios is still strong, a survey from the Climate Institute and the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) has found.
