Dev Sinha

Thematic global share investing business Macrovue has announced it has partnered with leading stockbroking and wealth management firm Pulse Markets to make its international share trading platform available for Pulse Markets clients.  Macrovue has delivered a ‘white label’ solution that enables Pulse Markets clients to seamlessly invest in global shares under the trusted Pulse Markets brand.

The Pulse Markets branded global share trading platform will provide direct access for Pulse Markets clients to trade more than 20,000 shares and ETFs on 20 global exchanges using any of 9 major currencies.  In addition, Pulse Markets can create and manage global share trading portfolios for clients.

Along with international share trading, Pulse Markets’ clients will now also have direct access to Macrovue’s 22 thematic global share portfolios that are designed to invest in global megatrends that will impact the global economy, such as Artificial Intelligence and Clean Technologies, as well as more traditional styles such as International High Yield.

“This marks a key milestone in our journey as we enable more partners improve investment outcomes for their clients and increase accessibility of international shares and global thematic portfolios” said Macrovue’s Co-CEO Dev Sinha.

Pulse Markets is a diversified financial services business offering a range of financial services to retail, wholesale, corporate and private clients for over 16 years. Last year Pulse Markets launched Managed Discretionary Accounts (MDA) services to clients which allows for an efficient investment structure enabling advisers to automatically rebalance global share trading portfolios for clients or use a multi asset allocation strategy.

OJ Mongjaay, Head of Business Development at Pulse Markets, highlighted the significance of the event concluding, “This innovative technology-based partnership puts Pulse Markets at the forefront of global thematic investing as the first MDA provider in Australia to offer this solution in partnership with Macrovue.

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Spencer has some 15 years’ marketing experience across a diverse range of financial services brands, products and propositions. He’s held senior marketing roles with Macquarie Bank and CommSec, and was most recently a senior marketing leader at ANZ Wealth.

Scott also holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) from Macquarie University. He’s also achieved a Diploma of Financial Planning and Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance from Kaplan Professional.

Rod Bristow, CEO of Macrovue, is delighted to welcome Scott to the team and looks forward to his contribution.

“Scott will play a key role in leading Macrovue’s marketing function to help deliver our value proposition of making international investing easy for our key target markets of direct clients, SMSF Trustees and financial advisers,” he said.

“Macrovue is also working with Australian stockbrokers looking to add international share trading capability by ‘white-labelling’ Macrovue’s leading global investing solutions.  Scott will make a valuable contribution here as well.”

Bristow added “Scott’s networks and experience across share trading, investment platforms, private banking, financial advice, life insurance and investment lending will be invaluable for Macrovue as we look to accelerate our already strong growth trajectory.”

Commenting on his new role, Spencer said: “I’m thrilled about joining the innovative team at Macrovue.  They’ve created a unique and accessible offer that empowers investors to grow wealth and diversify their investments through thematic global share investing.  I look forward to working with the team to further evolve our proposition and help realise Macrovue’s significant potential.”

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Thematic portfolios are becoming more and more important for advisers to consider when thinking about a client’s overall portfolio.  Having the Macrovue thematic global share portfolios available for advisers delivers leading investment solutions and global diversification for advisers managing clients’ investments.  Macrovue’s investment management fee of 80bps with no performance fees provides access to global markets at reasonable cost for clients.

Leveraging the more than 50-years’ global stock-picking experience of the Macrovue Investment Team, Macrovue’s portfolio construction process combines inputs from a proprietary quantitative model with bottom up fundamental research to select a concentrated portfolio of 10 stocks that meet the objectives of the theme.

The Macrovue global thematic portfolios that have been added to the Praemium platform include:

• Macrovue Car of the Future Concentrated Equity SMA:
  The global automotive industry is at an inflection point, with two attractive and investible disruptive sub themes – the electrification of the automotive fleet and the proliferation of semi and autonomous vehicles. These two themes are early in the adoption cycle, have a large global addressable market, have regulation as a positive force, and have major players that are numerous and well capitalised.  In the 12 months to 10 May 2018, the portfolio returned 11.6% for investors.
• Macrovue Disruptive Technologies Concentrated Equity SMA:
  In the Disruptive Technologies portfolio, we include companies that are leaders in technologies such as the Mobile Internet, the Internet of Things, Advanced Robotics, Next Generation Genomics, Energy Storage, Advanced Materials and Renewables. We select innovative corporations that are growing rapidly by adopting disruptive technologies.  In the 12 months to 10 May 2018, the portfolio returned 50.6% for investors.
• Macrovue International Equity Income Concentrated SMA:
  The International High Dividend Vue is a portfolio of stocks from developed and emerging markets designed to deliver clients a steady income stream. It provides an opportunity for investors to gain exposure to international shares for diversification but also achieve a higher yield than is available from global ETFs and managed funds.  In the 12 months to 10 May 2018, the portfolio returned a yield of 8.1% for investors.

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Macrovue has announced its new investment portfolio built around AI.

Leading global investment business Macrovue announced the launch of its new investment portfolio built around the Artificial Intelligence revolution.

Artificial Intelligence or “AI” refers to the ability of machines to exhibit human-like intelligence using computer systems.  These systems can learn, reason, discover meaning, perceive their environment, learn from experience, and interact: ultimately solving problems without the use of hand-coded software containing detailed instructions.

Macrovue’s investment team, made up of senior international equities experts, have constructed a concentrated portfolio of high conviction positions in ten stocks comprising companies that are focusing on the five main AI technology systems in practice now.  Macrovue’s AI thematic portfolio (known as a Vue) will be released to investors on 3 May 2018.  The AI Vue presents significant investment opportunities as AI promises to have an enormous impact on the global economy.

The companies Macrovue has selected for inclusion in the AI Vue are the early AI adopters that combine strong digital capability with proactive strategies.  Macrovue expects these companies to have higher profit margins and be more likely to widen the performance gap with other firms in the future.

The stocks have been short-listed based on their exposure to the technology and characteristics such as relative valuation, earnings growth potential and dividends and sustainable competitive advantage.

Macrovue is holding a free online AI investment session on 3 May at 12:30pm (AEDT).

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Rod Bristow

AMP-backed fintech Macrovue has announced it has appointed Rod Bristow as CEO.

Rod is a former Chief Operating Officer and alternate Managing Director of Australia’s largest online stockbroker CommSec.

Most recently he was Managing Director and CEO of Infocus Wealth Management – a national financial advice, asset management and technology group.  In these roles, Rod led large teams to drive substantial growth organically and via mergers and acquisitions.

Macrovue will retain the expertise and capability of Founder Dr Sid Sahgal, who will move into the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer.  This strategic move will provide substantial depth of capability for Macrovue to deliver on its vision of providing Australians with exposure to global investment opportunities and a simplified way to invest in the world’s most successful companies and leading sectors.

Macrovue Chairman Brendan Foley said “Sid and his team have done an incredible job in rapidly growing Macrovue in our three key target markets of SMSF trustees, retail investors, and financial advisers.  We are embarking on an exciting growth phase of the business and are looking forward to benefiting from Rod’s expertise to assist with the next stage of Macrovue’s evolution.  To help with this growth phase, we will be embarking on a Series A capital raising round to scale the business and leverage the successes we have seen to date”.

Macrovue has recently integrated with the SuperConcepts Connected Services SMSF investment product marketplace, providing SMSF trustees direct access to Macrovue’s global equities investment solution. Macrovue is also working closely with several large financial advice firms to provide advisers with affordable access to global equities, ETFs, and Macrovue’s model portfolios.

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Macrovue offers a leading-edge platform to invest in thematic portfolios of global companies. The portfolios are constructed using in-house research, giving Australian investors unprecedented access to international markets.

Natasha has over two decades of experience in the finance sector and a track record for delivering consistent and sustainable results with leading finance and insurance companies. Natasha is CEO of SuperConcepts, one of the largest providers of SMSF administration, software and education services in Australia.  Prior to SuperConcepts, she held a number of high profile executive positions including at Suncorp, as the Executive General Manager for Customer Product & Pricing of the Personal Insurance division.

Rod Finch brings to Macrovue an impressive background in senior leadership roles within the financial services sector. Joining AMP in 2013, Rod is AMP’s Director of Strategic Marketing & Customer Experience.  Prior to AMP, Rod was with Lloyds Banking Group in the UK, where he held a number of senior leadership roles including Group Strategy Director and Director of Customer Value Management.

“Macrovue has built a solution that offers world-class investment expertise to Australian investors through global thematic portfolios. We’re delighted Natasha and Rod have decided to join the board. Both will bring tremendous experience in the financial services sector and fresh vision to Macrovue that will help us grow,” said Sid Sahgal, CEO of Macrovue.

“Macrovue’s innovative approach to thematic investment has it well positioned for growth in an emerging sector of the market, providing consumers and advisers with greater choice and access to markets.  I’m pleased to be joining the board of Macrovue and to play a role in helping to implement its vision” said Rod Finch.

Natasha said, “I‘m looking forward to  working closely with Sid and the team, especially given that SMSF investors are heavily exposed to equity portfolios. As an online investment platform Macrovue makes it easy to invest in both Australian and international shares.”

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Macrovue offers a leading-edge platform to invest in thematic portfolios of global companies. The portfolios are constructed using in-house research, giving Australian investors unprecedented access to international markets. The two new hires further bolster Macrovue’s strength in global markets.

Sriram Seshadri, formerly an Associate Director with Macquarie Group and a Senior Developer with Goldman Sachs, brings even more international expertise to Macrovue’s leadership team as its new CTO.

Seshadri has more than 20 years experience building commercially successful software for leading financial institutions. At Macquarie Group, he led teams delivering trading platform solutions for real time trading and for mid-frequency trading strategies across Australian and Asian markets. Sriram also worked as a Senior Software Engineer for Goldman Sachs where he built web solutions for the FICC and Primer Brokerage divisions. He makes the move to Macrovue from a consulting position with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

Maz Zaman, Head of Sales, has an extensive background in leadership, sales and stakeholder management, having successfully led large sales teams at BT Financial Group, Link Advice and CBA. At BT Financial Group, Maz led sales teams of financial advisers in insurance, super, investments and advice. He also managed a team of business bankers at CBA, achieving high sales and service targets.

“Sriram brings a very deep knowledge of international equity markets technology to the team, which will be invaluable as we scale up our operations,” said Sid Sahgal, the CEO of Macrovue.

“We are currently commercialising and marketing our world-class investment platform and expanding it in Australia before we launch overseas. Maz has headed up large sales teams for major financial institutions with extremely impressive results, so we can’t wait to see what he will do at Macrovue.

“Together, Sriram and Maz bring great breadth and depth of talent and expertise to our executive team as we prepare to take Macrovue on the next phase of its global journey.”

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Sid Sahgal

Macrovue, Australia’s first global thematic brokerage and trading platform, has taken the wraps off a new global share trading solution aimed at easing complexity, time, and costs for Australian financial advisers and their clients.

Sid Sahgal, Macrovue CEO said: “We offer the flexibility to create, trade, and rebalance share-based portfolios built from scratch by advisers, choosing from 20,000 securities and ETFs listed on over 18 global exchanges.“
Mr Sahgal noted that a surprising number of advisers are still using manual trading systems (paper and telephones) to buy and sell global stocks.

“Our platform features paperless client on-boarding, one integrated trading platform for global and domestic stocks, powerful performance tracking and sophisticated tax reporting,” he said.

The Macrovue platform features were constructed with the specific needs of advisers in mind.
“Today marks the beginnings of releasing our adviser functionality. Macrovue is finalising the platform to enable data sharing with existing financial planning software.

Instead of placing trades over the phone or via e-mail for clients, advisers now have an off-wrap platform solution that offers a hassle-free experience to trade international shares”.

Mr Sahgal noted that Macrovue is not a wrap platform (Investor Directed Portfolio Service), does not pool funds or combine trades and, most importantly, does not charge FUM fees.

It only charges a flat annual fixed fee per adviser client and low brokerage fees.

“We are delighted to bring a system of this level of functionality to market on behalf of financial advisers seeking a simply easier way to trade global and local securities. Any adviser interested in a free, limited trial of the Macrovue service need only contact the support number on our website,” he concluded.

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Sid Sahgal

Online investment service Macrovue has unveiled a world first online brokerage and trading platform giving Australian investors easy and transparent access to global equity markets.

Based on a thematic approach, investors can access Macrovue’s award-winning financial technology and market-leading research and technical smarts.

“Digital financial technology has helped create a power shift in the investment value chain that elevates individual investors to the same access level as institutions,” said Macrovue co-founder and CEO Sid Sahgal.

“We have purpose-built a platform to directly help everyday Australians who want to buy offshore listed companies or invest in broader global investment themes. To date, these opportunities have been highly intermediated, expensive, or just simply out of reach,” he said.

“Our sights are set firmly on empowering a greater number of investors who want one hassle-free process to execute on their chosen investment idea or theme, acquiring global stocks at low cost, with full performance and tax reporting included”.

Mr Sahgal said the co-founders were led to create Macrovue after scouring available service offerings.

“What we initially discovered were limited ways to access global markets, outside of pooled managed funds or Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Even managed account platforms are not equipped to provide investors the capability to directly buy and sell global listed stocks,” he said.

Macrovue is highly cost competitive.

It charges investors a low brokerage fee, and fixed subscription cost to access its proprietary research. The customisable Macrovue platform allows access to over 20,000 companies listed on 18 global exchanges.

Introducing investable macro themes or ‘vues’

Mr Sahgal said Macrovue does the research for investors and helps create portfolios of shares built around global themes and megatrends poised to benefit from long-term structural changes in the global economy.

A team of in-house equity research analysts researches companies around the world to build portfolios of stocks called ‘Vues’. Investors are saved the additional worry of researching foreign stocks with limited information. The website also provides detailed performance tracking and tax reporting.

Macrovue co-founder and Director Dev Sinha, who also leads Macrovue’s Equity Research and Product Development, said each Vue usually consists of 10 stocks.

“An important feature is that our Vues are not managed funds,” Mr Sinha said. “Each stock is visible and the investor is the beneficial owner.”

The company has developed a proprietary multi-factor stock selection model to filter and rank each stock from the more than 20,000 stocks available. This is followed by a fundamental bottom-up analysis of the stocks.

“Thematic investing helps identify industries and companies leveraged towards structural growth, that in turn we would expect to drive revenues and profits.

“Most themes impact value chains which span multiple industries. Done in a balanced fashion, investing on a theme offers a natural diversification across geographies and industries,” Mr Sinha said.

“Thematic investing also enables you to get behind ideas or causes you are passionate about – whether it is clean energy, disruptive technologies, or the rise of luxury brand consumables in China,” he said.

Quality people, processes and technology

Macrovue is one of a few Australian companies to have registered with the Internal Revenue Service in the United States, meaning investors are saved the bother of completing paper forms when buying US company stocks.

A recent senior addition is Mr Clay Carter, a well respected and sought after commentator on world markets and the global economy. Mr Carter brings more than 25 years’ experience as a global portfolio manager investing in international equities.

Mr Sahgal concluded: “We have developed an entirely unique platform. It’s a very exciting time as financial technology is opening up access for self-directed investors to participate with greater ease in the trends driving global capital and equity markets.”

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Macrovue is an online brokerage service using in-house research to construct theme-based portfolios of global companies, giving Australians a unique and easy route to holding international equities. The funding round includes Brendan’s Gatica Investments, high net-worth individuals, and a follow-on investment from AMP New Ventures.

Brendan brings to Macrovue’s board more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, including being a co-founder and the Managing Director of the Select Asset Management Limited group, before its sale to ASX listed OneVue Holdings Limited in August 2014.

As the principal of Gatica Investments, Brendan invests in high-growth businesses in the finance and technology space as well as proving director and adviser services. Brendan will advise Macrovue on its go-to-market, sales and distribution strategies as the company moves from beta to a public launch in the third quarter.

Australian investors need more choice and access to international equities, not only when it comes to investment options but also in terms of the financial service providers available to them.

“Macrovue is an exciting, new company poised to establish itself in a space ripe for competition. I’m very pleased not only to be an early investor but also to be an active driver of the company’s growth,” said Brendan.

“We are in the process of building a world-class investment solution that will give Australian investors unprecedented access to global markets. Brendan with his experience building companies is an invaluable addition to our team and we are excited to learn from him and work alongside him,’’ said Sid Sahgal, the CEO of Macrovue.

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