Ella Brown doesn’t mince her words. AMP Capital’s head of fundamental equities says some Australian boutique fund managers have an inflated reputation. “Just because people are in a boutique it doesn’t mean they have more commitment to the product than us at AMP Capital. We have very passionate portfolio managers,” says Brown. She says there has been “an illusion of greatness” around some who have been perceived as “hot investors.” “Their performance has proved otherwise,” says Brown. AMP Capital’s core equity fund has had annual gross returns of 8.4 per [...]

Australian private equity funds produce the second-best returns after China amongst Asian private equity funds. The Australian funds that manage $250 million or less have an internal rate of return of 18 per cent per annum over a decade, according to the Australian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association Ltd. Access to money for buyouts in Australia remains robust. Japanese banks are providing finance for such takeovers where European banks once did. Still, private equity accounts for just 3 per cent of all takeover activity in Australia. Globally, there is [...]

QIC Ltd. wants eight new risk management customers on top of the seven funds it currently helps, says Troy Rieck, a managing director at the Brisbane-based firm. “We manage risk to increase returns,” says Rieck, visiting potential clients in Sydney. Rieck’s team has 14 people and was formed in 2007 after prodding by QIC’s University of Chicago educated chief executive Doug McTaggart. QIC helps risk manage about $70 billion in assets under management including the $30 billion defined benefits scheme of the Queensland government. QIC helps design currency overlays, asset [...]

Just nine per cent of more than 5,000 investment strategies in the Asia-Pacific region meet the highest standards of environmental, social and governance investing, says Mercer. Since 2008 Mercer has assigned a 4 point scale to investment strategies based on how ESG guidelines. Funds are assessed on how integrated such principals are in active fund management. Asked if she was surprised at the small number of funds that meet the highest ESG criteria in Asia-Pacific, Mercer’s head of responsible investing for the region Helga Birden simply says “no.” “This is [...]

Matthew Drennan, who was in charge of about $5 billion in assets under management at Zurich Financial Services Australia Ltd., will leave the company by the end of the month. Zurich is merging its investments and life insurance business. Drennan, a nine-year company veteran, has been discarded. He will not be replaced. “I’m assessing my options,” says Drennan, who worked at Deutsche Asset Management before Zurich. “There are a couple of opportunities out there,” he says. Drennan has no interest setting up his own asset management company. “It’s a very [...]

Asset managers will continue to use software companies to help with trading, analysis and trade settlement as spending on such activity is down by a quarter, according to Charles River Development. Asset managers are “bottom line driven. They divest themselves of a lot of costly systems, data, staff,” says Cameron Field, managing director Asia Pacific at Charles River. The financial software developer employs about 65 people in Asia. It has about 22 customers in Australia. In Asia Charles River has about 60 asset management clients. Charles River’s competitors include BlackRock, [...]

In front of Paul Taylor Japanese food sits almost untouched. The Fidelity fund manager is far, far away. He is describing lessons imparted by Peter Lynch in Boston and Anthony Bolton in London. “The time they have to spend with you…I’m amazed,” says Taylor, almost at a loss for words as he contemplated the wisdom imparted by two legendary Fidelity asset managers. The Brisbane Anglican Church Grammar School product has done his mentors proud. Taylor’s fund is up 12.4 per cent per annum since inception on June 30, 2003. The [...]

Under a glass covered case at Perpetual Ltd.’s Sydney headquarters medals are displayed. One hundred employees enlisted for active service in 1940. Staff raised a fund for employees who served abroad during World War II. Now the firm’s employees are in another fight. Perpetual is the subject of takeover speculation. Investor Gary Weiss, says the Sydney Morning Herald, wants a board seat and to helm the company’s corporate strategy following the firing of former chief executive Chris Ryan this month. Weiss’ office didn’t return calls seeking comment. But if there [...]

ASX Group wants only orders of $50,000 or above to be able to be funnelled into so-called dark trading pools and wants companies such as Liquidnet to get a license to operate a dark pool. The operator of the Australian Stock Exchange says such recommendations to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission is still being considered. ASIC wants to wait until there is evidence of a major shift to dark pool from lit pool trading. Dark-pool trading is where investors, traditionally with large blocks of stock to buy or sell, [...]

Custodians should present information in a simplified way so that trustee fund boards can make decisions promptly, says Graeme Arnott, chief operating officer at First State Super. “Custodians must de-emphasise price and emphasise services,” says Arnott, a former custodian himself. Arnott says he wants “healthy competition” and isn’t fixated on price when deciding on custody contracts. But “I need to justify spending extra of members’ money,” he says. Arnott spoke on the sidelines of a conference organised by Conexus Financial, publisher of I&T News. Tweet

AMP Capital, the asset management unit of AMP Ltd., will seek investor money for a new global resources fund that will be managed by John Payne. Payne, 52, worked at Hexam Capital and Baring Asset Management. He joined the Sydney-based firm on February 15. AMP Capital has about $123 billion in assets under management “John’s appointment will allow us to launch a global resources fund to meet increasing demand from our clients in Asia and the Middle East,” AMP Capital’s head of fundamental equities Ella Brown says in a statement. [...]