Morningstar has dropped the offshore shares category for the second year in a row in the upcoming NZ fund manager of the year awards. The Australian arm of US-headquartered research house said in a release that the NZ “international equities award will not be awarded again this year, as there were no eligible candidates demonstrating… [Read More…]
Investment News
Green bond bubbles and other back-end climate risks
US financial infrastructure giant, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), has flagged ‘green bonds’ as a potential market risk, calling for equal treatment of the sustainability-linked fixed income instruments in the capital stack. In a new paper outlining climate change risks for financial market infrastructure (FMI) providers, DTCC says while green bonds have a… [Read More…]
Exits on QuayStreet as Smartshares moves in
Foundation QuayStreet portfolio managers, Roy Cross and Andrew South, will leave the business ahead of its impending takeover by the NZX-owned Smartshares. QuayStreet told clients in a note that the duo “have decided not to transition over to Smartshares” following employment offers made to all staff. Cross will remain with Craigs until March to help… [Read More…]
DIMS review in sight as FMA agenda, spending, staff balloon
Discretionary investment management services (DIMS) will come under the regulatory spotlight this financial year with a much-delayed review of the opaque sector slated for publication. According to the just-released Financial Markets Authority (FMA) annual report, the previously flagged “risk assessment of DIMS providers is in progress, following a delay due to reprioritising some work, and… [Read More…]
Vale Bernard Doyle
Colleagues, friends and family farewelled the highly respected NZ investment strategist, Bernard Doyle, last Friday at his Auckland funeral. Doyle died the previous Saturday about four years after falling ill amid a pivotal career moment. Following a more than 23-year stint with JBWere NZ, the Palmerston North-raised investment expert was due to join Forsyth Barr… [Read More…]
December quarter takes edge off 2022 negative impact for KiwiSaver funds
Just one of almost 60 diversified KiwiSaver funds on the Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW) investment survey radar turned in a negative result during the three months to December 31, 2022, as a bounce in global markets rescued all others from a four-quarter washout. “ essentially all [diversified] funds in our KiwiSaver universe had a positive… [Read More…]
Bear and bubbles: Grantham shouts another round
Veteran investor, Jeremy Grantham, has nominated a falling global property market as lead contender to drive the next deflationary phase of the multi-asset ‘super bubble’. In the latest of his long-running super-bubblistic series, Grantham says investors should prepare for further downward legs despite the stock and bond crashes of 2022 that drained much of the… [Read More…]
Unshackled: JANA staff take full control
After more than 20 years of institutional ownership, the management and staff of Australia’s largest asset consultancy have regained full control of their destiny. The Australian firm also has a big presence in NZ with several key clients including $1.8 billion Foundation North (secured late in 2020), BNZ and Trust Waikato. JANA CEO Georgina Dudley… [Read More…]
Man gets active, passive on the turn
The passive investment mega-wave has likely crested with active strategies poised for a long-overdue comeback over the next decade, according to a new Man Institute study. While the research arm of the global hedge fund management, Man, is not tipping an immediate passive crash to shore, the paper says the forces driving index momentum are… [Read More…]
NZX funds boss to leave
Smartshares chief, Hugh Stevens, has quit the business with an expected departure date set for June. Stevens, a former head of BNP Paribas Securities Services NZ, joined the NZX-owned business five years ago, adding to its range of exchange-traded funds and overseeing two major acquisitions during the last couple of years – the ASB superannuation… [Read More…]