Al Clark

Australian investors’ increasing appetite for international equities has led Nikko Asset Management Australia to offer the Nikko AM Global Share Fund, the company announced today. According to Rainmaker Information, Australians’ allocation to international equities increased by 16.8% over the year to 31 March 2015[1].

Nikko Asset Management has been actively expanding its existing investment capabilities in recent years. The most recent addition was the highly experienced global active equity team headed by Will Low in August 2014. The global multi-asset team headed by Al Clark joined the group in March 2014 and the Asia ex-Japan equity team headed by Peter Sartori joined in October 2013 (links to relevant news releases are provided below).

“In recognition of the demand for high performing, concentrated global equity capabilities, we are continuing to deliver more of the firm’s global expertise to the local market. This demonstrates one of the benefits of being part of a global asset manager,” said Sam Hallinan, Managing Director of Nikko Asset Management Australia. “The track record that Will Low and his five colleagues have assembled demonstrates that they are exceptionally qualified as active global equity managers and we look forward to their contribution to our Australian business.”

In 2001, while at BlackRock, Low formed and led an EAFE[2] team that was known for its strong alpha track record. In 2011, Low joined Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, where he led the formation of a global equity team that included Stephen Corr, James Kinghorn, Greig Bryson, Iain Fulton and Johnny Russell. From its inception, the team provided an excellent alpha track record in global equities in addition to continuing to manage EAFE mandates[3].

The team of six manages benchmark-agnostic, long-only global equity portfolios and has 19 years’ average industry experience.  Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, the team works closely with Nikko Asset Management’s full-service European headquarters in London. Using its research insights and its proprietary ranking process, the team is able to harness alpha from companies across the geographical and market capitalisation spectrum via an overall investment process that is disciplined, accountable and genuinely team-based.

“Our process delivers a high active share, differentiated global equity solution that aims to provide superior returns to clients as a result of investing in a narrower group of stronger performing companies than is represented in overall benchmarks,” Low commented. “We concentrate on well-researched, high-conviction ideas to deliver alpha in global equity strategies for our clients.”

The post Nikko Asset Management Australia meets Australian investor demand with offer of Global Share Fund appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Al Clark

At a time of heightened global political risk, Eurasia Group and Nikko Asset Management are partnering to bring together Eurasia Group’s proprietary geopolitical risk indicators within Nikko’s multi-asset investment management process. The partnership will offer global investors a risk-controlled means of getting exposure to emerging markets.

“We are experiencing a world of geopolitical creative destruction. With so little lasting cooperation among governments and so many emerging political and economic challenges, the need for an investor roadmap has never been greater,” said Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group. “Investors are more cautious, because they know they lack information. That’s what Eurasia Group and Nikko Asset Management mean to provide. This is a ground-breaking cooperative effort.”

Eurasia Group will provide Nikko Asset Management with a systematic methodology to measure and quantify political risk and its potential impact on emerging market asset prices. This framework includes:

1. country scores that capture current levels of political stability (the Global Political Risk Index),
2. formal assessments of the future outlook for political stability and its impact on the business environment (Political Trajectories), and
3. asset pricing models that estimate the interaction between political risk and market prices.

“Emerging markets represent a compelling investment opportunity for global institutional and retail investors alike,” said David Semaya, executive chairman of Nikko Asset Management. “In working with Eurasia Group, we’re going to be able to quantify important risks related to geopolitics and use that data within our investment portfolios, which will help us maximise the benefits of diversification by avoiding countries beset by crises or those headed in that direction.”

Emerging market and developing economies are set to grow by 4.3% in 2015 and 4.7% in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund, outpacing growth in advanced economies of 2.4% in both years. Moreover, within emerging markets, the dispersion of market returns has widened considerably since the global financial crisis hit in 2008, suggesting a strong case for attaining exposure through actively managed, multi-asset strategies.

Research from Nikko Asset Management shows that prior to 2008, in an emerging market multi-asset portfolio equally weighted in equities, bonds and currencies, equity would have contributed around 70% of the risk. As a result, a fundamental approach to stock picking was in favor, while investors believed downside risks were manageable. Since the financial crisis, however, bonds and currency have contributed much more to portfolio risk, with both now accounting for as much as 50% with volatility hovering at high levels.

Given the heightened uncertainty around geopolitical risk, a “top-down” macro approach to investing in emerging markets can deliver significantly better results than a more traditional “bottom-up” asset selection process. Analysts from Eurasia Group have worked closely with the multi-asset investment professionals from Nikko Asset Management to ensure that political risk signals from Eurasia Group’s political analysis are systematically incorporated into the investment process.

“We’ve developed a systematic approach to assessing which countries are prone to political shock, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data,” said Alex Kazan, practice head, emerging markets strategy at Eurasia Group. “Our analysts are evaluating reams of data that is collected on the ground and through open-source methods, yielding unparalleled breadth and depth of actionable information.”

Eurasia Group’s team of more than 60 analysts provide political analysis on 100+ countries covering Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States.

“Asset managers have struggled to effectively incorporate geopolitical risk information in their portfolio management process, partly because of the sheer volume of data that is available,” said Al Clark, global head of multi-asset at Nikko Asset Management. “Eurasia Group’s political risk signals and other assessments give us a proven means of quantifying what has been at best a qualitative input up to now, and we believe this will give us a distinct advantage in managing emerging markets portfolios.”

Investment products serving both institutional and retail clients will be made available later in 2015, and the two companies will conduct joint marketing efforts on a global basis.

The post Eurasia Group, Nikko Asset Management pair strengths in emerging markets investment appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Al Clark

Australian and New Zealand investors’ sizable allocations to global assets is leading Nikko Asset Management to make a major global product push into these markets, the company announced yesterday.

The Tokyo-based asset manager is also aligning the current Tyndall brand names in both Australia and New Zealand with the firm’s global name, Nikko Asset Management.

The asset manager will use its expanded investment expertise and capabilities to provide new products to institutional and retail clients in both countries. In August, Nikko Asset Management formed a new global multi-asset team led by Al Clark. In the same month, it added a global active equity capability headed by William Low, and in October 2013, an Asia ex-Japan equity team led by Peter Sartori.

“We are one company and therefore should share one name globally as Asia’s premier global asset manager,” said Takumi Shibata, president and chief executive officer of Nikko Asset Management. “The investment teams, the sales and marketing teams and the back office teams are all working collaboratively for the benefit of our clients. One brand simply reflects what is already working for us.”

Nikko Asset Management plans to introduce several global strategies through its local subsidiaries in Australia and New Zealand in the coming months, while continuing to offer products investing in local securities. The move will allow the firm to leverage its significant global resources in meeting the varied needs of investors.

“We are very pleased to be expanding our global offering to Australian investors,” said Mike Davis, Managing Director of Nikko Asset Management, Australia. “The evolution of our business over the past three years as part of Asia’s premier global asset manager has added to our depth of investment capabilities to meet the sophisticated needs of our clients in this competitive environment. Approaching the market as Nikko Asset Management in Australia will allow us to differentiate the value we bring to our clients, borne out of our Asian insights.”

The firm’s Australian operation has A$24 billion (US$23 billion) in assets under management, representing approximately 14 percent of Nikko Asset Management’s total assets of US$168 billion as of June 2014.

“Nikko Asset Management is well known globally, and we are excited to bring more of the firm’s global expertise to our clients,” said Peter Lynn, Managing Director of Nikko Asset Management, New Zealand. “With this brand transition, there is no change to our investment teams, their investment philosophy, processes or portfolios. As one company, with one name, we will further distinguish our offering to clients in New Zealand.”

The company’s New Zealand operation, which is based in Auckland, is the only foreign asset management firm operating in the country. Its assets under management reached NZ$3.8 billion (US$3.3 billion) as of June 2014.

According to a June 2013 survey conducted by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority[1], some 31 percent of superannuation fund assets were allocated to global investments, with 25 percent in equity and 6 percent in fixed income. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, a survey of leading balanced funds by Aon Hewitt[2] reveals that 48 percent of assets were allocated globally, with 32 percent in equity and 16 percent in fixed income.

Nikko Asset Management is conducting its inaugural Foreword client event this week in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland. Speakers include the firm’s global head of investment Yu-Ming Wang, in addition to the portfolio managers in charge of its leading global and local investment strategies.

———–

[1]Annual Superannuation Bulletin June 2013 (revised February 5, 2014)

[2] The Aon Investment Update, Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting July 2014

The post Nikko Asset Management to unveil global strategies in Australia and New Zealand appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Al Clark

Global investors’ increasing demand for multi-asset investment strategies is driving Nikko Asset Management, a related company to Tyndall Investment Management Limited, to form a specialist portfolio management team in Singapore, the company announced yesterday.

The team, which currently oversees $24 billion of assets for institutional and intermediary clients, will be launching multi-asset products as well as integrated solutions for clients around the world.

The Tokyo-based asset manager previously had multi-asset staff in separate locations, and through this move will strategically consolidate its resources in order to maximise the firm’s global multi-asset capabilities.

Nikko Asset Management aims to provide institutional-quality multi-asset products, solutions and customised advisory services to global clients, who are increasingly allocating their assets to investment opportunities around the world, while also protecting against downside risk.

“Multi-Asset is gaining a lot of attention from investors, and we are taking this action to serve growing demand across the globe,” said Yu-Ming Wang, Global Head of Investment at Nikko Asset Management. “Clients are demanding multi-asset funds as well as tailored solutions to manoeuvre through volatile markets to reach their investment targets. To meet these needs, we’ve brought together a highly specialised team in the same location to reach critical mass.

We recognise Singapore as our centre of excellence for Asia, and as a central hub we will be strengthening our investment capabilities further in this region, and elsewhere as the opportunities arise.”

Al Clark, who was appointed as Global Head of Multi-Asset in March, will lead the 18-member team. The team has an average of 20 years of experience in the financial industry. Clark himself has over 20 years of experience in trading and portfolio management, having spent the last seven years in Singapore as Head of Multi-Asset for Asia Pacific at Schroder Investment Management where he played a leading role in asset allocation decisions for the region and had management oversight of a team across Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tokyo and Sydney.

Global investors recently have increased their searches for multi-asset products, growing by 33% in 2013, according to a Mercer LLC survey in April[1] . Meanwhile, State Street Corporation said in a separate report in June[2] that there was a limited supply of managers who could provide multi-asset solutions.

———

[1] 2013 Global Manager Search Trends
[2] State Street 2014 Asset Manager Survey – “Frontline Revolution: The New Battleground for Asset Managers”

The post Nikko Asset Management unveils global multi-asset capability, integrates experience and assets in Asia appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Al Clark has joined Nikko Asset Management’s Australian subsidiary, Tyndall Investment Management Limited, in the newly created role of GlobalHead of Multi-Asset. Based in Sydney, Clark will be responsible for driving the growth of the multi-asset business for Nikko AM globally.

Nikko AM is bolstering its investment infrastructure to provide more value to its growing base of institutional and retail clients. Clark has more than 21 years of experience in trading and portfolio management, and has worked for major asset management groups such as Macquarie Funds Management, BT Financial Group and Schroder Investment Management, in both Sydney and Singapore. He has been developing and implementing strategic asset allocation models for almost a decade.

“We are very pleased to have Al on board, with his broad multi-asset knowledge and his proven experience in growing assets in this exciting area,” said Yu-Ming Wang, Global Head of Investment and CIO International. “Nikko AM’s investment team will concentrate on delivering performance in their respective asset classes, and Al will ensure that this performance is captured and packaged into products and investment solutions that meet the needs of our global clients. His appointment will accelerate the speed at which we can bring competitive multi-asset, multi-region products to market.”

Clark will report to Yu-Ming Wang, based in Tokyo. His appointment is the latest in a series of hires to support Nikko AM’s plans to deliver world-class investment products to clients across the globe. The matrix management structure announced by Nikko AM earlier this year has already proven successful in cross-fertilising investment ideas and investment capabilities, and the company intends to launch new products that combine local market needs with sophisticated multi-asset strategies.

Clark joins the Nikko AM Group from Schroder Investment Management (Singapore) Ltd, where he was responsible for growing the multi-asset business in Asia-Pacific.

The post Nikko AM Appoints Global Head of Multi-Asset appeared first on AdviserVoice.