The call came during the Certitude Global Investments national adviser roadshow where Threadneedle and its global equities offering was introduced to its adviser network,following the signing last month of an exclusive retail distribution agreement with Certitude.

Head of Global Equities at Threadneedle, Jeremy Podger, presented a strong case for adopting a true world view when it comes to equity investing. He cited issues such as the capacity constraints of the Australian equity markets and the increased internationalisation of companies in every region as two reasons to adopt such an approach. A third is the need to buffer against likely ongoing volatility – and that large, genuinely global organisations may be better able to weather than smaller, more localised organisations.

“For perhaps the past ten years there has been the view that you could in effect ‘switch’ from one market – say a developed market; to another – perhaps, emerging markets – and pick up gains that way,” Mr Podger said. “However with valuations having converged and emerging economies facing increased cost pressures, trying to capture growth only through emerging market equities won’t give you access to all the best opportunities available in markets globally.”

In essence, said Mr Podger, we are now facing a ‘three –speed’ global economy in which we have near-zero growth in the peripheral European states; sluggish growth in other parts of the developed world and strong but slowing growth in the emerging markets.

For investors, he said, the best way to capitalise on this growth is to look to genuinely internationalised companies – what he described as ‘citizens of the world’ – which have footholds in various markets and can capitalise on growth while minimising their cost base on a global basis. Companies such as BMW, Tiffany & Co, Burberry and Samsung which have positioned themselves to reap rewards from the growing consumer market in Asia while their traditional developed markets have been in the doldrums.

Craig Mowll, CEO and MD of Certitude, opened the roadshow stating: “As the government guarantee expires in October 2011, advisors will be challenged in how they will approach and manage their clients moving forward.

“Due to what we have been experiencing, investing globally will likely be one of the largest of those challenges. But with the likelihood of FoFA taking effect in 2012 and with investors being given a choice to ‘opt-in’, providing clients navigation and advice on 96 per cent of the world’s markets may just prove to be the best value planners can offer clients in a fee for service environment.”

Mr Mowll cited issues such as falling cash rates along with the strong Australian dollar and the need for greater diversification as popular reasons for investors – and especially high net worth investors – to be looking off shore.

Mr Mowll said that it was in light of such upcoming issues that Certitude began looking for a world class international equities equity manager. Starting with a universe of 4,000, Certitude worked with a global research house to produce a high quality shortlist – which led to signing the five-year exclusive distribution agreement with Threadneedle.

“This complements our existing offering with our other investment partners, Lighthouse Partners and Marshall Wace Gavekal,” he said.

“Bringing Threadneedle on board with their global equities offering rounds off the picture and enables advisers who are so minded to present a far fuller and more balanced array of investment options to their clients. It’s an offering we are fully expecting to be taken up strongly given the current market and as more advisers become familiar with the rigour of Threadneedle’s processes.

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