Asset management

‘A thief in the night’ was the title of Stephen Hayes’ session at last weeks’ Equities and Growth Assets Symposium hosted by The Inside Network. Tasked with confronting the most significant and pressing issue facing investors and asset allocators around the world, Hayes managed to summarise it quite simple ‘pricing power’ is what really matters….

“If there’s one thing, I can tell everyone… is that gold is fire insurance, even better, gold is portfolio insurance,” said Ganesh Balendran speaking at The Inside Network’s Equities Symposium. Delivered in a unique technology-driven Pecha Kucha format. Balendran challenged delegates to consider the expanding use cases of ETFs amid a surge in volatility and…

Markets are poised for more damage after a remarkable bull run, and Orbis Australia believes now is the time when contrarianism will prove its worth. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,” famously wrote Charles Dickens in “A…

Leading responsible and sustainable investment manager Australian Ethical (ASX:AEF) this week announced their intention to merge with industry fund Christian Super. If completed, the combined entity would manage some $9 billion and serve around 100,000 members across the country. Christian Super, and similar religious-leaning super funds were some of the earliest adopters of the ESG…

“(The biggest benefit) of late stage venture capital is the uncorrelated nature of the asset class,” said Kevin Moss, president and portfolio manager at late stage venture capital manager Liberty Street Advisors (LSA). “Everybody’s looking for the capital gains of course, but this really differentiates the asset class… And history will tell you that periods…

There has been a saying in markets for the last few years that fixed-income investments, favoured for their guaranteed returns and correlation benefits, have actually become “fixed-loss.” The driving factor was the threat (and now, realisation) that bond yields and cash rates were set to turn higher, reversing a four-decade tailwind. Naturally, these types of…

Global investment consultant and support network to the pension fund industry, bfinance, this week released its latest Market Intelligence and Market Trends report, covering the final quarter of 2021. While the world has changed dramatically since the calendar turned over, there are some powerful insights for financial advisers and other asset allocators. According to its…

Floods, fires, landslides, earthquakes. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, the impacts of climate change are becoming more pronounced, with many still struggling to understand the implications they have for various asset classes. Long the stalwart of institutional portfolios, commercial properties are among the oldest asset classes in the world, having been…

While watching one of the most popular TV series in recent years, Billions, which follows the story of hedge fund billionaires, you wouldn’t necessarily expect to gain business ideas or insights. Perhaps investment ideas given that the characters in the series are known for pushing the limits to generate the maximum return possible, but definitely…

With climate change front and centre of every investor’s mind, most people think of renewable energy or clean energy production as being primarily solar panels or wind turbines. Often many of the more effective and efficient renewable energy production processes are left out, such as hydro-electricity. Nuclear power is almost always omitted from the “clean…

Speaking at the Inside Network’s Equities and Growth Assets Symposium, the only conference dedicated to this important asset class, co-portfolio manager of the Franklin Global Growth Fund, Francyne Mu said the time was right for investors to start “flipping the script and look beyond the usual suspects” in resetting their equity allocations.   No surprise…

Following-on from the COP26 meeting last November, there has been a tectonic shift towards “green” asset investments to ensure that the (voluntary) national goals of the Paris Agreement are met, and there is a rapid reduction of carbon-dioxide emissions to ‘net zero’ levels. The Australian Financial Review said that as of September 30, “sustainable funds…