Investment News

Multi-asset credit strategies are coming into their own of late as ways to provide yield for investors, with little or no correlation to the fully priced equity market and, potentially, with little or no interest rate duration risk. Sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not as simple as that, of course, but in… [Read More…]

NZ fund manager positions on just two stocks have skewed their results either way during the June quarter, according to the latest Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW) Investment Survey. The NZ share market returned 5.9 per cent over the three months ending June 30 – the best-performing asset class recorded by MJW for the period –… [Read More…]

Auckland-based investment manager New Ground Capital is collaborating with charitable group, the Ākina Foundation, to launch one of NZ’s first ‘impact’ funds. The wholesale Impact Enterprise Fund – in the final stages of offer paperwork – will target a modest capital-raise of $15 million to invest in up to 15 locally-domiciled entities with a social… [Read More…]

Research house Morningstar has come to the defence of hybrids – sort of – following a stinging critique of the quasi fixed income instruments by the outgoing head of Australia’s financial regulator. In a note published last Friday, John Likos, Morningstar Australia senior credit analyst, says press comments by Greg Medcraft, Australian Securities and Investments… [Read More…]

For John Coombe and Ken Marshman, at least, and John Nolan as an interested observer, JANA has come full circle. After weeks of rumours, NAB confirmed last week that it would be selling to staff 55 per cent of the equity in JANA Investment Advisers, which it had bought from founder Nolan, and early colleagues… [Read More…]

The latest Northern Trust poll of some 100 global fund managers has highlighted increasing fears about US equity valuations and calm-before-the-storm volatility. According to the June quarter survey of the Northern Trust multi-manager panel, 65 per cent of respondents rated US shares as over-valued, rising from 51 per cent in the previous quarter to the… [Read More…]

In what could be a NZ-first, the investment platform offered by the Hastings-headquartered Boutique Advisers Alliance (BAA) has bolted-on an automated identity check process. Officially launched late last year, the BAA custodial platform – a bespoke FNZ-backed system – last week added the auto-ID feature to smooth the anti-money laundering (AML) compliance process for its… [Read More…]

The use of outsourced data technology from various providers in an open-architecture environment will become more prevalent, especially in the wealth management space, according to David Simpson, the long-standing regional director of FactSet in Australia. He has recruited James Savage as a new sales specialist. Savage, whose previous role was as a business development manager… [Read More…]

In a report published last week Mercer has laid out a four-pronged plan to bridge a global retirement savings shortfall that it says could hit over US400 trillion by 2050. The ‘Bold ideas for mending the long-term savings gap’ paper says out-dated “formal and informal social insurance systems” were not designed to withstand the challenges… [Read More…]

Global listed infrastructure has become a popular asset class since the global financial crisis, particularly in the wholesale sector. But, according to Australian research house, Zenith, the tailwinds of the last nine years could become headwinds as interest rates rise. Zenith advises to look under the bonnet before choosing a manager. A Zenith report on… [Read More…]