Markets

The oldest asset class in the world, direct property, is experiencing something of a renaissance amid a surge in inflation and the pursuit of lower-risk income streams. This was part of the discussion at The Inside Network’s Alternatives Symposium, held in Melbourne. Chris Cornforth from Harvest Hotels took a room of Australia’s leading financial advisers…

As the amount of capital available to them soars and equity markets grow more volatile, companies increasingly don’t want to go public – and don’t need to. The number of publicly-listed companies on US exchanges has roughly halved from 8,000 to 4,000 in the last 20 years, according to Liberty Street Advisors. And while part…

We have already entered a new era (perhaps ‘the Crypto Age’) where large parts of our daily lives – work, social networks, financial capital, human interaction, entertainment, gaming, music, and artistic creativity, will be digitised (and increasingly tokenised) to be stored and exchanged on a blockchain. That’s the view that Michael Armitage of Apollo Capital…

Multi-trillion-dollar global asset manager Amundi this week released a timely commentary to assist investors to navigate the challenging market environment. In this type of uncertainty, it pays to gain exposure to as many different views as possible, with the France-based Amundi offering a unique, on-the-ground, European insight. “The worst-case scenario of a Russian attack on…

Private equity has been one of the most popular, and profitable, of the alternative asset classes in recent years. The collision of massive amounts of capital and more companies choosing to avoid the pressures faced by becoming listed has made an allocation within portfolios more important than ever. The asset class is often the topic…

Investment research firm Morningstar announced the winners of their 2022 Fund Manager of the Year this week. Last year the big names included Hyperion Asset Management, First Sentier Investors and Franklin Templeton. This year was saw a suite of different names take out the top awards with a decided tilt towards low-cost, passive strategies. In…

“It doesn’t matter what type of investor you are, it’s the same across the board. It comes down to what is your objective and the type of returns you’re trying to achieve”. These were the wise words of Felicity Walsh, Head of Sales at Franklin Templeton speaking on The Inside Network’s Practitioners Panel. The session…

Reimagining portfolios for tomorrow’s reality Increasing inflation volatility represents the greatest challenge to investors for a generation. A new regime and the collapse of the financial market status quo requires us to reimagine portfolios. No longer can we rely on yesterday’s logic. “Inflation is the endgame. Just brace for inflation volatility first.” Do we still…

Just a few short months ago, we were asking the question “are equities too expensive?” The threat of rate hikes then switched the rhetoric to “why aren’t bond yields higher?” But now investors face an even more challenging question, according to Kerry Craig, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management: “what do I do…

Gerry Fowler, investment director of multi-asset strategies at abrdn, says everyone will have experienced inflation in some shape or form by now; be it energy bills, food, groceries or the price of cars, inflation is here to stay. “Inflation was considered initially just a purely Covid-related phenomenon. The transport-of-goods inflation went through the roof and…

The oldest asset class in the world, direct property, is experiencing somewhat of a renaissance amid a surge in inflation and the pursuit of lower-risk income streams. This was part of the discussion at The Inside Network’s Alternatives Symposium, held in Melbourne last week. The sector has evolved quickly in recent years, with Invesco’s Ashley…

Insignia Financial (ASX:IFL), previously known as IOOF, delivered a solid profit result last week, reporting a 79 per cent increase, hitting $117.9 million for the half. The company remains a rare, outside of the industry fund sector, vertically integrated financial services business, with operations spanning platforms, asset management and most importantly financial advice. It has…