Ironbark Asset Management, the third-party marketing and multi-affiliate manager, is working on an SMA with a wealth advisory firm, concentrating on a multi-asset strategy. Ironbark Asset Management will be the RE.
Ironbark, which represents assets of about $2.9 billion in the ‘multi-asset’ product sector, was started by former Deutsche Asset Management chief executive Chris Larsen in 2009. It has been very successful. The firm tries to have a representative on the investment committees for all its clients.
The proposed new product strategy follows an upbeat global fixed income report by Foresight Analytics, an Australian specialist research firm, published last month.
The proposed new product strategy follows an upbeat global fixed income report by Foresight Analytics, an Australian specialist research firm, published last month), which has been referred to in investor presentations by Ironbark in the past couple of weeks.
According to the Foresight report, institutional allocation to global fixed income strategies has been rising in recent times.
“Yield-based” strategies have stood out, while other manager performances have been “mixed”, the study says.
The ‘Global Fixed Income Report’ for 2019 says that the global fixed income sector and asset class have done “very well” over the past year and, pretty much, the previous decade, off the back of falling interest rates around the world.
In 2019, emerging markets outperformed developed market returns. The UK, Canada, Italy and Australia were among the best performers in the developed world.
“While yield dispersion across major segments remain high, investors need to avoid sectors with high risk and low returns,” the report says. “Active manager performance has been mixed across most styles, but yield-based styles stand out the most.
“Dispersion between the fixed income managers is very wide for key portfolio and return drivers. Investors need to compare managers of similar style to ensure apple-to-apple comparisons,” the report says. “Dispersion on performance and risk are also very high, reflecting greater dispersion of style and factor biases.”
Greg Bright is publisher of Investor Strategy News (Australia)
Note: An earlier version of this article identified the wealth advisory firm as Bankwest. This was incorrect.