Nick Basile is on the hunt for a replacement. The acting-chief executive of real-estate investor Presima is travelling outside Australia seeking a replacement, says a statement by Presima’s controlling shareholder National Australia Bank. Basile is a director of various units of the bank and a non-executive director of a number of National Australia Bank affiliates. Montreal-based Presima invests in property securities around the world. It currently has a team of 10 people excluding Basile, according to its web site.

Lodestar Capital Partners will close down on June 30 after more than five years managing money. The Australian stock fund manager, which is 33-per-cent-owned by Nabinvest, says its main fund has outperformed the stock market by about 1 per cent a year since inception on March 1, 2007. “This has been a difficult decision to make, yet we believe this in the best interests of all,” says Lodestar founder and principal John Morgan in a statement. “Lodestar has not been immune from the impact of ongoing difficult market conditions.” Morgan [...]

Schroder Investment Management Australia says Kent Jensen and Alex Mears have let the firm to pursue other interests. Jensen, whose stock research included media, mining services, paper and packaging, is returning to Norway to embark on a career outside asset management. Mears, who was responsible for uranium, oil and gas and utility stocks, will travel and probably not work in finance. “In the current market environment I don’t think it will be a particularly difficult exercise to find replacements,” says Greg Cooper, the chief executive officer at Schroder in Australia. [...]

James Crawford, a senior portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein, will leave the company at the end of next month. New York-based AllianceBernstein gave no reason for Crawford’s departure. Crawford, an asset manager in the firm’s value equity investment product, did not return calls seeking comment. The investment product that Crawford helps manage was originally a joint venture between Axa and AllianceBernstein. When AMP acquired Axa’s Australian operations the fund continued to be managed by AllianceBernstein which is also responsible for personnel decisions. In other AllianceBernstein news, the manager of US$424 billion [...]

Chris Clayton, who was in charge of Acadian Asset Management’s Australian business, has left the firm and joined MLC as head of asset management sales. Clayton left Acadian earlier this month after joining in September 2005. Andrew Hair has been selected to take Clayton’s place on a temporary basis. Colonial First State Investments, Acadian’s joint-venture partner, says someone will be appointed to head the Australian venture “in due course.” Boston-based Acadian is an asset manager specialising in stocks. Clayton was previously head of national accounts and research at Colonial First [...]

Rob Sullivan, who was head of institutional sales at boutique fund manager-backer Treasury Group, has joined rival NAB Invest. Treasury Group and NAB Invest both have ventures with asset managers in an effort to attract money to investors interested in investing with boutique firms. A Treasury Group spokesman confirmed Sullivan’s departure. NAB Invest declined comment.

Simon Shields, the head of Australian equities at UBS Global Asset Management, will leave the company to set up a hedge fund with his colleague Shane Fitzgerald. “Shane and I are going to set up a fund in April,” says Shields. A Standard & Poor’s report says the new fund will have “a total return strategy” and be “an independent branded boutique” on the UBS platform. A UBS spokesman says Shields will not be replaced. Recruited from Colonial First State Global Asset Management, where he ran a $20 billion fund, [...]

Mark Levinson, the head of transition management at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Australia, will leave the firm and join a nascent hedge fund. Levinson, who joined New York-based Goldman Sachs in 2008,says he will join a firm of 10 people who formerly worked at Morgan Stanley, Tudor Investment Corp. and Pimco. It is not clear if the hedge fund has a name but Levinson says it does have “seed capital.” Levinson previously worked at Citigroup Inc. Levinson was promoted at Goldman Sachs to run their transitions management business in [...]

Stephanie Weston, who served as adviser to institutional investors at investment consultants Mercer, has joined AMP as director of investment management. Weston, from March 12, will be in charge of ongoing governance of investments of AMP and the National Mutual Life Association Co, which include investment products under the AMP and AXA brands. AMP spokesman Michael Zappone confirmed Weston’s hiring. Her departure from Mercer was confirmed by Graeme Mather, partner, Mercer Investment Consulting. AMP Capital has about $93 billion in managed funds. Weston also worked at the Reserve Bank of [...]

National Australia Bank Ltd. fought off rivals to renew its custody contact with MTAA Super Fund, a business relationship that will now last more than 15 years. The bank, which has a 30 per cent market share of Australia’s custody business, has yet to finalise the length of its contract with MTAA Super, which manages about $6 billion. MTAA Super was advised by consultants Thomas Murray. “Key factors in our decision to re-appoint NAB were its focus on and expertise in asset servicing for superannuation fund assets, and in particular [...]

Martin Currie Investment Management Ltd., which opened an office in Melbourne in 2008, has lost investment mandates from Asset Super, Mercer and TelstraSuper. John Paul, Asset Super’s chief executive, says as of December, 2011, the $1.6 billion superannuation fund not longer uses Edinburgh-based Martin Currie to help manage $63 million of its money. The mandate was given by Asset Super to Martin Currie in June 2009. “They were downgraded by (investment consultants) Mercer in the international equities space,” says Paul. “We’ve shared the money among (five) existing managers which has [...]