Investment News

The apparent anomaly of rising US interest rates and a falling dollar should not come as a surprise, Brandywine Global managing partner, Adam Spector, told NZ investors last week. Spector, on tour last week in NZ with Brandywine Global head of business development Tad Fetter, said while investors traditionally associate interest rate hikes with higher… [Read More…]

Vontobel Asset Management Australia has launched a new unit trust for Australian and New Zealand wholesale investors, providing ESG principles to its emerging markets capabilities. The new fund, which has an initial investor minimum of A$10 million, is called the ‘Vontobel mtx Sustainable Emerging Markets Leaders Fund’. It consists of a concentrated portfolio of “highly… [Read More…]

Recently-launched joint venture business Maxima has seen steady growth as a widening array of firms seek relief from anti-money laundering (AML) compliance headaches. Guy Dobson, founder of financial education provider firm Dynamique, which partnered last year with fellow Wellington business Compliance Plus to form Maxima, said the widening AML net has been a “big driver”… [Read More…]

While most areas of private equity have performed well for both managers (general partners) and their investors (limited partners), there has been a standout sector in the past 12 months according to a study by McKinsey & Company. This was “the surge of megafunds”. The report, ‘The Rise and Rise of Private Equity’, says the… [Read More…]

More than $800 million could transfer to a new NZ-domiciled Legg Mason product in a deal that also opens up the popular institutional Brandywine fixed income fund to retail investors for the first time. Andy Sowerby, Australian head of the US-headquartered ‘multi-affiliate’ firm Legg Mason, said the portfolio investment entity (PIE) version of the group’s… [Read More…]

Following the still-mysterious departure last June of long-standing chief executive, John Prendergast, his permanent replacement has landed at the approximately $220 million Community Trust of Southland (CTOS). According to a CTOS spokesperson, Jackie Flutey, formally took over the reins last week from interim manager, Denis Woods. Flutey previously managed the Invercargill-based ILT Foundation, which distributes… [Read More…]

Takapuna-based boutique, Pathfinder, has boosted its responsible investment credentials becoming the first NZ fund manager to hire an in-house environmental, social and governance (ESG) specialist. ESG analyst, Rebecca Lindegger, joined Pathfinder last week along with operations and compliance manager, Bob McCutcheon, joining a team of four in the firm’s Auckland North Shore office. John Berry,… [Read More…]

Magellan Financial Group has made two significant acquisitions, which signal a new phase of growth as a diversified multi-style manager, backoffice services provider and distributor. Airlie Funds Management gives Magellan a quality Australian equities offering and Frontier Partners in Chicago gives it a standalone distribution business. The founders of Airlie are John Sevior and David… [Read More…]

Global pension funds raked in a record US$4.8 trillion during 2017 pushing total assets under management to an all-time high of US$41.3 trillion, according to the 20th Willis Towers Watson (WTW) annual survey of the sector. On average the pension assets managed by the 22 jurisdictions covered in the WTW report – now housed under… [Read More…]

Commonwealth Bank of Australia subsidiary ASB is testing the market for new, possibly robo-advice driven, direct-to-consumer managed funds platform aimed at helping parents save for their children. If switched on, the ASB ‘MoneyTree’ platform – currently in beta-testing – would offer access to “high performing managed funds without the high minimum deposits”, according to the… [Read More…]