Investment News

Mint Asset Management has a further independent director waiting in the wings, according to chief executive officer, Rebecca Thomas. Last week Mint appointed Mark Todd as board chairman, replacing Paul Richardson, the firm’s chief investment officer, who had held the role since last August. Richardson took up the job temporarily following the resignation of Pip… [Read More…]

Milford Asset Management has been fined $1.5 million after agreeing to a settlement with the financial regulator in regards to alleged market manipulation charges relating to a trader employed by the firm. In a just-released Financial Markets Authority (FMA) statement, the regulator said “the trading conduct breached the market manipulation prohibitions in s11B of the… [Read More…]

New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZS) veteran, Tim Mitchell, has resigned after more than a decade in various senior roles at the organisation. Mitchell moved to his most-recent strategic advice position earlier this year following a stint as head of NZ active equities for the $29 billion plus fund. As well as consulting on the initial… [Read More…]

AMP Capital NZ is pitching a revamped investment service to institutional clients that includes access to a broader range of external fund managers and products. George Carter, AMP Capital NZ head of distribution, told Investment News NZ (IN NZ) while existing house products would form the core of its institutional offering, the firm now had… [Read More…]

Only three bidders remain in the battle to purchase Russell Investments, according to a Reuters report published last week, down from six who made it through the first round of negotiations. The Reuters story names global consulting firm Towers Watson as favourite to pick up Russell with two Chinese businesses – Shanda Group and CITIC… [Read More…]

Investors need to be “more careful than ever before” when constructing portfolios, according to New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) principal economist, Shamubeel Eaqub. Eaqub told the Perfecting Investment Portfolios conference in Auckland last week that headline figures or total averages are no longer useful guides. “Investors need to know what’s driving each and… [Read More…]

The introduction of the Financial Markets Conduct Act (FMC) has lifted New Zealand’s funds management industry up a notch in the latest Morningstar ‘Global Fund Investor Experience’ report. Produced biennially since 2009, the Morningstar study, which rates the funds industry in 25 countries across four qualitative categories, awarded NZ a C+ in the 2015 report… [Read More…]

Vanguard has gazumped MSCI and FTSE/Russell by moving to directly include China A shares in its emerging markets ETF products and strategies. The two index companies vacillated in their latest deliberations. The news from Vanguard, which is not known for aggressive marketing positions with new products or strategies, offers nimble investors a prime opportunity to… [Read More…]

BlackRock has recruited an Australian-born finance professor at New York’s Columbia University, Andrew Ang, to head up a new global strategy group focused on smart beta strategies. Ang will oversee, initially, about US$125 billion in assets. The group will focus on systematic factor-based investing, most commonly referred to as smart beta, which is the fastest… [Read More…]

Two big names in global custody are moving on, it was announced last week – State Street’s, who is to retire later this year, and HSBC’s global sub-custody boss, Colin Brooks, who has left the bank. Antonellis, 60, is currently the group’s vice chair and head of global services and global markets for State Street’s… [Read More…]