Investment News

Devon Funds has secured seed investors for its newly launched ‘green’ corporate bond fund featuring Australian firm, Artesian, as underlying manager. Greg Smith, Devon head of retail, said the Artesian Green and Sustainable Bond Fund went live last week with several investors already committed and a queue of interested advisory groups. “The initial discussions we’ve… [Read More…]

Recession has trumped stagflation as the most pressing risk over the next five years in the latest Russell Investments poll of global fixed income managers. The Russell survey of global bond and currency managers found just over 20 per cent of respondents ranked stagflation as the number one mid-term concern compared to more than 40… [Read More…]

Expert estimates of the equity risk premium (ERP) remained remarkably consistent across the first two decades of this century, a newly published CFA Institute research paper reveals. The CFA report shows the most common ERP 10-year forecasts from a 2021 panel of financial luminaries including Cliff Asness, Rob Arnott and Roger Ibbotson converged at 4… [Read More…]

Index provider MSCI has urged developed world stock markets to move in lock-step to a one-day settlement cycle as US and Canadian exchanges ready for a quickening next May. The MSCI 2023 market classification update warns out-of-synch settlement times could prove disruptive for investors. “As this change is set to occur in the US and… [Read More…]

ANZ Investments has largely filled a swag of staff vacancies with about a dozen hires across its funds management and operations staff of late including the appointment of the former QuayStreet head of fixed interest, Roy Cross. However, Cross has switched codes in his role as ANZ senior equities analyst, reporting to newly promoted head… [Read More…]

Nikko Asset Management has landed a $250 million fixed income mandate with Tower, replacing long-time incumbent Fisher Funds in the plum institutional gig. Fisher has managed the NZ insurer’s fixed income assets since the group bought the Tower Investments business in 2012, retaining the previously in-house mandates. In a statement, freshly appointed Nikko managing director,… [Read More…]

Fisher Funds has hired ex AMP Capital NZ chief, Rebekah Swan, as a responsible investment adviser for a fixed term contract. Swan led the NZ arm of AMP Capital from November 2020 through the change of ownership to Macquarie last year and until the Australian firm shopped the business to Mercer NZ, effective this March…. [Read More…]

With climate-reporting duties looming large for most local fund managers, insurers and NZX-listed firms, two industry organisations have joined together to produce a compliance guide. Compiled by consultancy firm EY, the 87-page document sets out a possible climate-reporting framework aimed at members of the Financial Services Council (FSC) and the Boutique Investment Group (BIG). Collectively,… [Read More…]

Vanguard usurped BlackRock as the biggest institutional fund manager in 2022 during a year where most firms went backwards, according to the latest Pensions & Investments (P&I) global survey. The P&I data shows Vanguard took the number one spot with just above US$5 trillion under management despite seeing assets slide by more than 7 per… [Read More…]

Australian superannuation funds will be able to charge embedded advice fees under new proposals approved last week following the so-called Quality of Advice Review (QAR). The Australian government backed the super advice fee reforms and 13 other recommendations of the total 22 floated in the final report tabled by QAR lead, Michelle Levy, earlier this… [Read More…]