Matt Olsen

Leading research provider, Lonsec Research, yesterday announced Matt Olsen has been appointed as its new CEO, effective immediately, to replace David Erdonmez, who departed the business in June this year.

In his new role, Mr Olsen will be responsible for managing the research team of 25 investment professionals, overseeing the implementation of Lonsec’s robust investment research process for financial advisers, as well as supporting the evolution of its service offering.

Mr Olsen brings more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry, including equity analysis, fund manager research and portfolio management. Prior to joining Lonsec Research, he was most recently CIO at Energy Industries Super Scheme.

Amanda Gillespie, Director of Lonsec Research and Joint CEO of Lonsec Fiscal, said Mr Olsen had extensive investment and research experience and skills to lead the research business on a continued path of sustainable growth.

“Matt’s expertise lies in his deep understanding of investment markets, hands on experience analysing both listed securities and critiquing fund managers and critically, working with clients to support implementation of research insights,” Ms Gillespie said. “His established network of relationships with fund managers, financial advisers and super funds also makes him well suited for the role.”

Ms Gillespie said the appointment of Mr Olsen positioned Lonsec Research strongly to continue delivering high quality research services for clients.

“We have launched a number of new initiatives this calendar year and we are excited to have Matt joining the team to work with our clients, to discuss how the evolving Lonsec service offering can support their businesses.”

In April this year, Lonsec Research released an expansion of iRate, iRate 5, following the business’s acquisition of the technology at the end of 2014. In the same month, Lonsec Research launched an engagement tool for advisers, Goals Based Analysis tool, and a series of fund-specific metrics – BIOmetrics. The business has also broadened its research coverage to include ratings on separately managed accounts, listed invested companies and mFunds, as well as keeping pace with the expanding exchange traded fund (ETF) universe.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Lonsec Fiscal Holdings, Lonsec Research is a leading provider of investment product research, ratings and portfolio construction insight to the Australian financial advice market, across a broad range of unlisted investments.

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Mr. Erdonmez will begin in June and report to Adrian Stewart, Executive Vice President and Head of PIMCO Australia and New Zealand.

In this new role, Mr. Erdonmez will be responsible for leading PIMCO Australia’s newly formed Investment Due Diligence Group (IDDG) which includes the servicing of all research house relationships.

IDDG is also responsible for developing and executing on product strategies that help clients achieve their long-term investment objectives.

“David is an important addition to the Australian senior leadership team and his addition underscores PIMCO’s commitment to the Australian marketplace,” said Mr. Stewart.

Mr. Stewart adds, “We are committed to our clients’ unique requirements and delivering innovative investment solutions to help achieve their long-term investment objectives. David’s expertise and solid experience will further strengthen our capabilities to serve our clients in Australia.”

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David Erdonmez

Leading research house Lonsec yesterday launched a new series of financial product ratings tools called BIOmetrics, which will allow financial advisers to better select and manage financial products to suit consumers’ individual investment needs.

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David Erdonmez has been appointed General Manager – Managed Funds Research and will join Lonsec in early October. In this role, David will be responsible for managing the team of analysts undertaking core managed funds research, ensuring the continued high quality of Lonsec’s research material and ongoing enhancement of the research process.

Amanda Gillespie, Chief Executive of Lonsec’s research business, commented, “David’s strong technical background, knowledge of investment products and respect within the industry will make him a valuable addition to Lonsec’s research team.”

David joins Lonsec from Standard & Poor’s Fund Services where he was Head of Fixed Income Managed Funds Research. As well managing the fixed income research team, he had full accountability for all fixed income stakeholder relationships, client communication and analytical output.

Lonsec’s coverage of investment products is categorised into two sub-groups – core managed fund products – such as equity and fixed income funds – and specialised products, spanning structured products, direct assets, ETFs and SMAs.

As a result of this, Michael Elsworth’s role has been expanded to General Manager – Specialised Research.

“Michael has been responsible for undertaking and overseeing research across these specialised products for a number of years. As investor demand for research on specialised products has increased, Lonsec has boosted the number of analysts covering them,” said Gillespie.

“This expansion of Michael’s role will position Lonsec to continue delivering high quality research across these evolving sectors,” said Gillespie.

Other notable changes within Lonsec’s research team include Paul Pavlidis, who has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer, with overall responsibility for business management.

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The report covers a diverse number of products classified into Australian and global offerings and further by individual peer groups. These include “plain vanilla” bond funds that fall within the “fixed interest” classes and funds that differ in their make-up and therefore have a specific classification such as “credit” offerings including “high yield”. 

“For the past three years, our commentary on this asset class has incorporated discussions around the issues in peripheral European countries, and this year is no different. Performance in 2009 and 2010 was generally strong, but 2011 and the first half of 2012 proved to be a difficult time for active managers,” said S&P fund analyst David Erdonmez. 

Performance for our more core offerings has largely been dictated by duration and the ability to predict the future path of interest rates. Meanwhile, credit-focused offerings have been susceptible to widening spreads in a risk-off environment. 

Key points from the report are: 

• Bentham Asset Management and PIMCO are the only managers to receive our highest ratings in the global fixed interest sector with both managers retaining five-star ratings on their offerings.
• Tyndall Investment Management, PIMCO, Colonial First State Global Asset Management, and AMP Capital Investors received five-star ratings for their Australian fixed interest offerings.
• Two funds in our global fixed interest peer group currently remain ‘On Hold’. These are the OnePath Wholesale Diversified High Yield Trust, and the OnePath Wholesale Diversified Fixed Interest Trust.
• Turnover within investment teams was reasonable during this review cycle with the only notable change being team additions at UBS Asset Management. Former INGIM staff members Rachel O’Connor, and credit analyst Thomas Wu have permanently joined the team.

 9 July 2012

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The review covered funds offered in four peer groups of cash, enhanced cash, fixed interest, and credit. 

There has been very little rating change in this year’s review. AMP Capital’s corporate bond fund was upgraded to five stars reflecting our highest opinion on the investment team, in particular portfolio manager Jeff Brunton, the firm’s investment process, and their approach to risk management. Our other five-star ratings were for the PIMCO Australian Bond Fund and Australian Focus Fund, Tyndall’s Australian Bond Fund, and Colonial First State’s Cash Fund. 

Performance across the Australian bond fund universe has been mixed with the key driver of outperformance, or in the majority of cases significant underperformance, being duration positioning. 

“The divergent views on the path of interest rates were unparalleled in my time covering this asset class,” said S&P fund analyst David Erdonmez. 

“The fact that we had managers presenting views that would lead to maximum long or maximum short duration positioning highlights the different approaches managers take in forming their macro views. The bias of the majority was to the short side with very few managers positioned long,” said Mr Erdonmez.

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