Fund Manager News

7th Nov 2019 - Mark Devcich, Chief Investment Officer October saw stronger global markets, and weaker domestic markets in Australia and NZ. The NZX50 had a rare month of negative returns falling 1.3%. Power utilities’ share-prices suffered from Rio Tinto’s decision to announce a strategic review of the future of NZ Aluminium Smelters which caused jitters…

8th Nov 2019 Key points Global equities outperformed bonds in October as trade risks abated, US earnings impressed and central bank easing supported sentiment. The economic outlook for Australasia improved and the associated higher interest rates reduced the value of fixed income assets. Equities underperformed their global counterparts due to sectoral weakness in electricity, banking…

Harry Smith - Senior Investment Analyst - 30 October, 2019 Last month I was on the road. Visiting management of portfolio companies, meeting their key competitors and searching for new investment ideas. I was on the lookout for companies that operate in an industry with a large and growing end market. One such company is…

Ashley Gardyne, Senior Portfolio Manager — International Shares - 30 October, 2019 The failed WeWork IPO provides some timely investment lessons. It also shows no shortage of opportunists trying to separate investors from their savings. The story of shared workspace provider WeWork and its failed initial public offering (IPO) will make a great book. A…

David McLeish, Senior Portfolio Manager — Fixed Interest - 30 October, 2019 Interest rates, both home and abroad, have been setting historic lows almost weekly for the last eighteen months.  This has profound implications for us all.  It is for this reason; we are writing a series of articles that we will share with you…

October 29th 2019 Antipodes Chief Investment Officer, Jacob Mitchell spent 7 years running one of Australia's largest Japan funds, achieving outperformance of 9.9% per annum. In this webinar he discusses the Japanese economy and what global equity investors can learn from Japan's decade of low rates and perceived economic stagnation.

Executive summary High levels of uncertainty generated by ongoing trade tensions is a continuing drag on global economic growth. The uncertainty is keeping business confidence suppressed, leading to a reluctance to invest. This is mostly evident in manufacturing where global manufacturing PMIs are in contraction territory, but how serious this is depends on the share…

Ethical Leaders Funds 30 September 2019 Engagement update AMP Capital’s Ethical Leaders (EL) managers in Australia continue to engage with companies as they work through what Australia’s Modern Slavery Act means for their businesses in terms of reporting, disclosure and initiatives to detect and address modern slavery in their supply chains. Climate change continues to…

We are writing to inform you that Harbour has joined with other shareholders in a class action against the former directors of CBL Corporation. You may see coverage in the media about this, so we wanted to provide some information to you. Harbour and Australian-based Argo Investments Limited are both named as representative plaintiffs of…

Market Commentary Market commentators have been increasingly vocal around the ongoing deterioration in sentiment, and indeed a number of hard economic indicators continue to be weak.  However, there seems to be some very large underlying forces (namely the actions of Government and central banks) which are overpowering some of the more typical bottom-up drivers of…

Global shares Global share markets made strong gains in the September quarter, with the MSCI ACWI Index – Net returning 7.1% in unhedged NZD terms. In hedged NZD terms, returns were more modest (0.9%). Much of the gains can be attributed to expectations slowing global growth and ongoing trade disputes will force more central banks…

Year Ended 30th June 2019 INTRODUCTION As manager of our investors’ capital our responsibilities extend beyond making good financial investment decisions. We are also stewards of this capital and this brings additional important responsibilities which require consideration and action. Modern corporate governance standards typically give investors in companies an opportunity to express their opinion on…