The world’s biggest and most famous, or infamous, private equity firm has revisited its opinions on the macro environment just two months after already delivering its original views, in January. The verdict is: it’s OK. Thanks for the insight. The KKR white paper published recently by Henry McVey, the firm’s head of global macro and… [Read More…]
Archives for 2019
NZX snares ANZ veteran for funds CIO job
The 20-year ANZ Investments veteran, Stuart Millar, will join the NZX funds management arm in the newly-created chief investment officer (CIO) position later this year. Millar, whose history with the ANZ Investments team dates back to its Armstrong Jones roots, resigned the $20 billion plus bank-owned funds management team last week to be replaced by… [Read More…]
Float sinks: AMP NZ swims on with parental assistance
The name remains the same: AMP NZ gets to keep its brand after its Australian parent abandoned well-flagged IPO plans for its allegedly sluggish Kiwi child last week. But the surprise rebranding of the NZ wealth arm from a secondhand-sale item to a growth prospect was down to upper-level management changes rather than lack of… [Read More…]
Tauranga trust first to Mercer index fund
The Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust (TECT) has emerged as the seed investor in the new Mercer global equities index fund. Mercer launched the international shares index fund late last year with the UK-based Legal & General (L&G) as underlying manager. According to the TECT website, the trust invests about 60 per cent of its diversified… [Read More…]
December was a downer but dynamic duo defeat KiwiSaver depression
Just two of the 13 largest KiwiSaver providers eked out positive net growth over the tough December quarter, likely buoyed by new member transfers rather than investment returns. According to the latest data from Australian research house Strategic Insight (SI), only the BNZ and Generate schemes saw funds under management (FUM) grow during the three… [Read More…]
NZ Super puts proxy record on display
Already one of the most transparent sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) globally, last week the NZ Superannuation Fund (NZS) opened another window to its $40 billion soul with the release of a proxy voting history. The NZS ‘Voting Reporting Platform’ tracks the fund’s proxy performance dating back to July last year, using data supplied by its… [Read More…]
Challenges in fund admin with mushrooming private equity
You’d have to say the global private equity market is going gangbusters. Whether or not that’s good for investors is a different question, of course. But when a fund administrator, such as Mainstream Fund Services, has its say, it tends to provide an extra degree of authenticity to the discussion. At the latest in its… [Read More…]
Why instos will never go crypto
Crypto assets will never catch on with institutional investors until post-trade standards match those of traditional financial markets, a new report claims. According to a Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) white paper, the plethora of platforms trading the so-called crypto assets or “security tokens” require “appropriate rules and regulations” to govern post-trade risks. “Furthermore,… [Read More…]
State Street challenges BlackRock’s Aladdin
State Street and its recently acquired systems and data subsidiary, Charles River Development, have entered into a co-operative arrangement with the risk management specialist and research firm Axioma, whereby the three will integrate their analytics, allowing them, collectively, to cover most or all front, middle and backoffice tasks. The deal is seen, potentially at least,… [Read More…]
Updated: FSLAB set to become FSLAW this week
The countdown to the new financial advisory era in NZ should kick off this Tuesday with Parliament scheduled to pass the long-awaited enabling legislation into law after it limped through a half-hearted house committee phase last week. Bumped up the parliamentary order list from 13th earlier this week to fourth last week, the Financial Services… [Read More…]