Alternatives

Investors seeking alternatives to high-priced equity and low-yielding fixed income investments are increasingly turning to Australia’s private debt market for attractive risk-adjusted returns and capital protection. Australia’s private debt market is entering the mainstream – both as a funding option for Australian businesses and as an asset class for income-conscious investors. Renewed interest in this…

Specialist alternatives investment research firm Evergreen Consultants has released a research report on AAM Investment Group’s Diversified Agriculture Fund (ADAF), attaching a “Highly Commended” rating. This is the highest rating in the rating scale, meaning the fund has scored consistently very well across all areas of Evergreen Ratings’ research and analysis framework. As a result,…

Uncertainty has returned to the market after a bumper 2020, fuelled by persistent inflation and a pandemic that never really went away. But in its latest alternatives outlook, JPMorgan warns that investors “aren’t seeing the forest for the trees.” “Up close, the ‘trees’ in the 2022 outlook are clear,” writes Anton Pil, global head of…

The team at Loomis Sayles has released a research note advising investors to prepare for the transition from pandemic to endemic. Every time a new Covid variant is born, the market is hit with fear and uncertainty as investors brace for the potential economic impact. Loomis Sayles says, “it’s important to pay attention to new…

Perennial Partners’ sustainable small cap equities fund, the Perennial Better Future Trust, was up 2.4% net of fees in December, beating the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index’s return of 1.4%. The trust has been in operation for almost four years, since inception in February 2018, and has grown to exceed $100 million in assets. The…

“Learning to live with COVID will be the major theme of 2022,” according to Ken Leech, chief investment officer of leading fixed income manager Western Asset. But not necessarily in the way we think. As the Omicron variant ravages Australia and other parts of the developed world, Leech highlights continuing travel restrictions and lower vaccination…

If we are truly honest about the state of the Australian investment industry when it comes to alternatives, we were very much a backwater for many years. That is, at least, at the mass market, retail, or wholesale level. For many years, the best alternative assets advisers could access were the so-called “black boxes” of…

Morningstar has released its “top-performing global equity fund managers in 2021” report. This year, the funds that performed the best contained a well-disciplined approach to investing, together with an experienced team capable of producing high-performance numbers. The research report found that the top three global fund managers also had outstanding longer-term performance numbers. What this…

One of the most powerful, and potentially long-standing, impacts of the pandemic was the so-called democratisation of investing. With over a billion people stuck at home, many of whom were in secure work, or alternatively the beneficiaries of the largest stimulus package in history, a large portion turned to investing to fill the time. At…

The team at Evergreen Consultants has released cutting-edge research that reveals the direction markets will take with higher inflation. The 2021 issue of Evergreen Consultants’ Long-Term Expected Returns Framework has made ground-breaking projections that dispel inflationary concerns. Projections show the Australian and global equity markets outpacing most other asset classes in the decade ahead. Evergreen…

The Responsible Investment Association of Australasia delivered an early Christmas present for ESG investors and trustees alike, confirming the long-debated question as to whether ‘green’ or ‘responsible’ super funds outperform. The answer was a resounding yes for those funds that are categorised as leaders according to the RIAA’s extensive survey and due diligence process. The…

Opportunities only the private equity market can offer have been unlocked and captured by global ETF provider VanEck. The ETF provider has stepped into the private equity space with a focus on unlocking investment opportunities in start-ups, buy-outs, and project financing. Van Eck will soon list the Global Listed Private Equity ETF (ASX: GPEQ). According…