GLOBAL INVESTMENT INSIGHTS

November 2024

Global Investment Institute congratulates Ruwanie Dias on her appointment as Head of Investments at ANZ Staff Super.

ANZ Staff Super has A$7 billion in assets under management. In her role, Ruwanie is accountable for all investment decisions and outcomes for the Fund, with responsibility for the multi manager investment portfolios covering public and private asset classes.

Prior to joining ANZ Staff Superannuation, Ruwanie spent over a decade with Commonwealth Bank Group Super, with seven years spent in the role of Chief Investment Officer.

We wish Ruwanie all the best in her new role and continued success to the team at ANZ Staff Super.

November 2024

Global Investment Institute congratulates Haresh Sampat on his promotion to Head of Private Markets Strategy at Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC), within the State Investments (SI) team. QIC manages more than A$68 billion on behalf of ~40 clients, headquartered in Brisbane, Australia.

Haresh joined QIC’s SI team in September 2012 and most recently held the position, Head of Mid Risk Strategy, with responsibility for private debt and sub-investment grade credit asset class, reporting directly to Allison Hill, the State Chief Investment Officer. 

We wish Haresh all the best in his new role and continued success to the team at QIC.

November 2024

Global Investment Institute congratulates Andrew Barros on being appointed to the Impact Alpha Partners board as a Non-Executive Director.

Impact Alpha Partners (IAP) was founded with the mission to partner with investors and help drive impact and alpha in investment outcomes.

Andrew is a seasoned private wealth advisor with more than two decades of expertise in family office and private wealth management, with a proven track record of building and scaling purposeful businesses. His appointment strengthens the IAP’s alignment toward designing solutions that address the dynamic and unique needs of these clients.

We wish Andrew all the best in his new role and continued success to the team at Impact Alpha Partners.

November 2024

Global Investment Institute congratulates Aoife McCarthy on her promotion to Senior Analyst Responsible Investment at CareSuper.

On 1 November 2024, CareSuper and Spirit Super merged to create a new fund, which will continue under the CareSuper name, with more than 573,000 members and over A$53 billion in assets under management.

We wish Aoife all the best in her new role and continued success to the team at CareSuper.

October 2024

Global Investment Institute congratulates Marnie Kingston on her promotion to Head of Investment Research and Oversight at Future Group.

Future Group has 383,000 members and oversees A$14 billion in assets across their brands which include Future Super, GuildSuper, ChildCareSuper, Verve Super and smartMonday, with a focus on contributing to positive social and environmental outcomes through retirement savings.

Prior to her promotion, Marnie served as a Senior Portfolio Manager – Alternatives at Future Group, a role she had been in since January 2022, when she joined Future Group in Sydney, NSW.

We wish Marnie all the best in her new role and continued success to the team at Future Group.

“Greater dispersion across asset classes can provide attractive alpha opportunities for both long and short positions. In our view, alpha diversification is more reliable across various macro regimes than beta diversification, making relative-value decisions more resilient to macro shocks.”

- Dimitri Curtil is the Global Head of Multi-Asset Solutions at Newton Investment Management where he oversees the team of portfolio managers and researchers responsible for the firm’s systematic multi-asset strategies. Dimitri also leads the development and enhancement of the research underpinning the strategies.

The market environment following 2008’s global financial crisis was characterised by an abundance of liquidity, effectively zero cash rates and negative correlation between stocks and bonds. With investors sensing that the central-bank ‘put’ was firmly in place to underpin markets, risky assets moved inexorably higher. Waves of central-bank quantitative easing (QE) created an inherent fragility in financial markets, with the abundant liquidity driving asset prices higher and rendering relative-value strategies less effective.

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic created such turbulence that inflation surged. Cash rates rose to more than 5%, eroding risk premiums and setting a high hurdle for risky assets. Traditional hedges such as government bonds did not provide diversification.

This drastic change created new challenges for client portfolios. Not only did diversification diminish as correlations between asset classes became less negative or outright positive, but inflation became a risk, particularly given its uncertain trajectory. Moreover, the shift into private-market strategies during the QE era created an unintentional bias towards illiquid assets. Furthermore, high cash rates mean the net present value of long-term cash flows is now lower than during the period of QE.

Is your portfolio prepared for this new regime?

October 2024

Global Investment Institute congratulates Nadine Hassouna on her promotion to Portfolio Manager, External Equities at TelstraSuper.

TelstraSuper is a leading profit-to-members fund managing around A$24 billion in assets on behalf of its members. It is regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and receives super contributions from more than 20,000 employers. 

We wish Nadine all the best in her new role and continued success to the team at TelstraSuper.