David Chaplin

Australian super funds have had a long, but sparse, history with agricultural investments. It may be, however, that times have changed. Demographics make the new-look agricultural investments currently on offer seem particularly appealing. The old Prudential Australia, before it was bought by Colonial in 1998, was a pioneer with a Northern Territory beef fund, which,… [Read More…]

At a star-studded dinner at Sydney’s Ivy Ballroom, UniSuper and QSuper, won the two top awards at the third annual Chant West Awards night, but for many in the room, it was Bruce Watson of AUSCOAL who stole the show with an impromptu and heartfelt appeal for the victims of the Nepal earthquake. Watson, AUSCOAL’s… [Read More…]

At least six final bidders remain in the running to buy Russell Investments, according to offshore media reports. The Financial Times (FT) last week named global asset consulting firm, Towers Watson and Ameriprise, owner of funds management firm Threadneedle, as second-round bidders for the Russell Investments business, along with an anonymous Chinese firm and a… [Read More…]

NZ share managers measure capacity across a wide range, according to a new study by actuarial consulting firm, Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW). According to the MJW report, which surveyed nine local fund managers, estimated capacity – the point at which funds under management drag performance – ranged from 1.2 per cent to 2.25 per cent… [Read More…]

After a month’s delay, AMP Capital handed over control of its roughly $690 million active New Zealand equities portfolio to Salt Funds Management last week. An AMP Capital spokesperson confirmed the transition, originally scheduled for the end of March, had gone through last Friday. Salt was appointed to the role – the biggest single NZ… [Read More…]

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) has begun winnowing through local equities managers up for the approximately $260 million mandate vacated by AMP Capital last year. An NZS spokesperson said the sovereign wealth fund is “working through our shortlist” with the beauty parade understood to have begun last week. The active NZ equities mandate –… [Read More…]

Mercer has lost two top executives with the exits of Steve Schubert, most-recently leader of strategic client partnerships and future opportunities, and Ray King, senior consultant private markets and alternatives in the group’s investment division. After four years with Mercer, Schubert, one of Australia’s leading actuaries, has made the move into funds management, taking up… [Read More…]

Fisher Funds is shaping up to invest more in global fixed income and emerging market equities directly after altering guidelines in some of its offer documents. In the revised prospectuses for the almost $1.4 billion Fisher Funds Two KiwiSaver scheme, the manager says it is “likely that in future the Funds will invest some of… [Read More…]

Northern Trust has won out in the rationalisation by QIC of its asset servicing providers, replacing NAB Asset Servicing for the main back-office functions of the increasingly global manager. As reported last week, QIC had reviewed the use of both Northern Trust, which has provided mainly middle-office functions at QIC for the past few years,… [Read More…]