Chris Douglas, Mapua Wealth principal, takes to the stage next month at the Financial Advice NZ (FANZ) annual conference in Christchurch with a surplus of talking points to spark debate should it flag at the three investment sessions he will be on board for. Market volatility, war, tariffs, climate change and artificial intelligence (AI), to… [Read More…]
Mega-mind: how factor investors can play the concentration game
Custom index specialist, Scientific Beta, has mooted two potential benchmark-tweaking strategies for diversified investors in times of sky-high equity market concentration. In a recent paper, the institutional index-maker suggests investors could either allocate a certain portion of factor-based portfolios to “mega-cap” companies or reweight stock holdings “to closely align with the market cap benchmark”. Authored… [Read More…]
ETFs wrap up the world
State Street is tipping “at least three US$100 billion asset managers” to enter the fast-growing Australian exchange-traded fund (ETF) market this year. In its 2025 global round-up on the sector, State Street says the US$150 billion plus Australian ETF will expand “across all investment sectors”. “We also see active ETFs getting a second wind, with… [Read More…]
Climate disclosures and transition finance: APAC’s path forward
It has been a turbulent year in global politics with governments and multi-nationals slowing down on climate action. On a positive note, convergence has been achieved around climate disclosures. BNP Paribas’ Jules Bottlaender, head of sustainable finance APAC, and Iain Martin, head of securities services NZ, file a progress report… 2024 has been a… [Read More…]
Sheep sheds and credit spreads
Ryan Falls, Mint Asset Management investment analyst, remembers why in life, and investments, you can’t forget about the hard work… People who work in professional services often start autobiographical profiles on their journey into their career with a contrived metaphor that loosely relates to their chosen career, and this text will be no different…. [Read More…]
Performance pain sees First Sentier drop responsible infrastructure strategy, veteran portfolio manager departs
First Sentier Investors has cancelled a poor-performing responsible-tilted global listed infrastructure strategy in a move that will see the one of the largest and longest-running funds of its kind in NZ renamed and restocked with energy companies. Under the shake-up revealed late in February, long-time First Sentier infrastructure portfolio manager, Trent Koch, has also left… [Read More…]
ANZ real asset managers prepare PIEs; Foundation fills up on Vanguard, Charles Schwab ETFs
A couple of ANZ underlying listed real asset managers are set to open portfolio investment entity (PIE) funds just six months after the bank-owned fund house exited the wholesale market. Resolution Capital and Maple-Brown Abbott (MBA) – both Australia-domiciled managers – are on the PIE train with respective listed property and infrastructure funds on track…. [Read More…]
Investment manager hunt begins for Napier fund
Napier City Council has kicked off its in-development perpetual fund outsourcing process with a search for potential investment manager partners now underway. In registration of interest (ROI) papers filed late in February, the Napier local government is looking to appoint a third-party manager to “construct and manage an investment portfolio” expected to top-out at $50… [Read More…]
NZ funds run finishes 2024 with $17bn plus flourish
The NZ funds management sector topped up by more than $17 billion last year as solid markets and strong flows grew the sector by close to 16 per cent to reach a new record high of $324.5 billion. Since the end of 2018, the managed funds market tracked by Reserve Bank of NZ has grown… [Read More…]
Brain-box, black-box, glass-box: inside the modern quant thinking
Quantitative investment has a black-box reputation, or a mysterious quality that Investopedia describes as something that “produces useful information without revealing any information about its internal workings”. But the black-box status of the statistically significant investment style is misleading, according to Jan Rohof, Northern Trust Asset Management (NTAM) Asia-Pacific quantitative solutions director – at least… [Read More…]