Jim McKay

Warakirri Asset Management (Warakirri) has announced a partnership with a US-based investment manager to exclusively deliver a new offering to local investors. 

The partnership between Warakirri and San Diego-based ClariVest Asset Management (ClariVest) is set to offer Australian wholesale and retail investors access to ClariVest’s global small companies strategy. 

Established in 2006, ClariVest is a specialist global equities manager that is focused on identifying ‘underappreciated growth’ – where behavioural biases have created a gap between investor sentiment and improving fundamentals. ClariVest seeks to exploit investor inefficiencies around company growth cycles to find opportunities that are yet to be appreciated by the market.

Warakirri has recently launched the ClariVest Global Small Companies Fund and will provide ClariVest with a full suite of services including operations, marketing and distribution. Warakirri’s support, together with ClariVest’s proven performance track record in global small cap investing, provides a strong platform for the growth of the new fund.

Jim McKay, Warakirri Managing Director said: “We are excited to announce this partnership which delivers a valuable new offering for our clients with easy access to an asset class with higher growth potential.  ClariVest’s unique approach to investing has resulted in a portfolio that is diversified by country and sector, and has consistently delivered excess returns across market cycles, making this strategy a compelling addition to client portfolios.”

David Vaughn, Founder and Chief Investment Officer at ClariVest said: “We look forward to our new partnership with Warakirri. We believe there is a real opportunity for global small caps to offer meaningful upside given current valuations, and this is an exciting time to bring our strategy to a broader set of investors across Australia.”

“Humans are wired to react inefficiently to change, and we believe we can consistently capitalize on this behavioral pattern in small cap equities across the globe,” he added.

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Reporting to Warakirri’s Managing Director, Jim McKay, Ms. Jordan will lead the development of Warakirri’s groupwide Sustainability and ESG strategy and oversee its implementation and reporting across its various business lines and joins the firm as it continues to grow both its agriculture and funds management platforms.

Ms. Jordan most recently held the role of Sustainability and Environment Manager at Select Harvests and is a sustainability and corporate responsibility leader with more than 15 years’ experience having worked on numerous sustainability, environmental and social initiatives across the private and public sectors. Her prior experience includes sustainability development strategy and communication roles at City of Melbourne and Bank Australia.

Commenting on the appointment Mr. McKay said: “Warakirri has a long and proud history of providing ethical and sustainable investment outcomes right across our capabilities and this continues to be one of our top priorities.  Nikki’s strong and diverse sustainability skillset and her knowledge of the evolving policy landscape make her a valuable addition to our team.”

“Nikki’s appointment will continue to drive our leadership in the sustainable and responsible investing areas and help us to deliver on our clients’ responsible investment objectives,” he added.

Warakirri Asset Management is a PRI signatory;  is certified carbon neutral by Climate Active – a partnership between the Australian Government and Australian businesses to drive voluntary climate action; and in late 2023, was one of the first Australian agriculture asset managers to achieve certification to the Leading Harvest Australia Farmland Management Standard – a world-first sustainability assurance program designed to harmonise sustainability reporting across crops and agriculture regions across Australia.

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Steven Carew

Warakirri Asset Management has announced the appointment of Steven Carew to the newly created role of Head of Multi Boutique Platform.

Reporting to Warakirri’s Managing Director, Jim McKay, Mr. Carew joins the firm as it continues to grow its funds management business and will have responsibility for the oversight of existing manager relationships, researching markets to identify opportunities for potential new investment strategies, and execute on new boutique opportunities for the Warakirri platform.

Following a more than 20 year career with JANA Investment Advisers, where he held the role of Chief Investment Officer until late 2021, Mr. Carew brings to the role more than 30 years of experience in the investment management industry, including asset allocation, portfolio construction, manager research and selection, risk management, and superannuation member investment choice and product design.

Mr. McKay said: “We’re delighted to have someone of Steven’s calibre and deep industry experience join our team as we continue to build Warakirri’s business and achieve our growth objectives. Steven’s significant investment and manager research experience will play a critical role around the identification and execution of new boutique partnerships that can consistently exceed client objectives as well as working with our existing investment boutique partners to further enhance our funds management capabilities.”

Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Carew said: “I am excited to join Warakirri, an organization I have interacted with for many years, as it has not only continued to grow and diversify its business but remained focused on delivering superior outcomes for its clients.”

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Ben Williams

Multi boutique funds manager Warakirri Asset Management, has announced the appointment of Ben Williams to the newly created role of Head of Private Wealth.

Reporting to Warakirri’s Head of Distribution, Stuart Devlin, and based in Sydney, Mr. Williams joins the firm as it continues to grow its distribution team and broaden its footprint across NSW and Queensland, and the private wealth channel.

Mr. Williams brings to the role more than 20 years of experience in financial services working across funds management and wholesale distribution. He has held a range of local and regional leadership positions with BlackRock, Lazard Asset Management and most recently with UBS Asset Management. His experience in managing teams and client relationships extends nationally and across the advice ecosystem and includes the co-design of various investment solutions tailored to the evolving needs of the portfolio construction industry.

Jim McKay, Warakirri Managing Director said, “We’re delighted to have someone of Ben’s calibre and seniority join our team as we continue to build Warakirri’s relationships with family offices, financial advice practices and High Net Worth clients. Ben’s strong network, coupled with his significant experience across key facets of the advice market, the platform space and product solutions, will help build on our relationships with our key client groups and for our funds management and agriculture capabilities.”

The addition comes following the recent appointment of Tim Lang to the newly created position of Research Relationships Manager. Warakirri is also currently recruiting for a further distribution individual in Melbourne.

“Ben joins at an exciting time for Warakirri. Our new Global Emerging Markets strategy managed by our investment partner Northcape Capital, has already received a recommended rating from two of the major Australian research houses and secured several key platform and managed account positions,” said Mr. Devlin.

“And our Australian small caps fund managed by Flinders Investment Partners is also going from strength to strength, with an excellent long term performance track record, more than tripling in size since Warakirri acquired its equity stake in the firm in the middle of last year,” he added.

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Jim McKay

Multi-boutique asset management firm, Warakirri Asset Management Ltd (Warakirri) has launched four retail funds, including a new Global Emerging Markets equities fund, following the announcement of its partnership with specialist equity manager Northcape Capital Pty Ltd (Northcape) earlier this year.

After more than 20 years as wholesale only investment offerings, the Warakirri Ethical Australian Equities and Warakirri Concentrated Australian Equity Funds are now open to retail investors.

Both funds offer investors access to best ideas portfolios of no more than 40 stocks managed by Northcape, winner of the 2019 Golden Bull award for Best Australian Equities Manager, who seek to invest in quality businesses that offer above average growth prospects and high rates of return on equity.

Northcape has been successfully managing Australian equities since 2004 and has a proven history of delivering solid outperformance.

The Warakirri Ethical Australian Equities Fund and the Warakirri Ethical Global Equities Fund – an unhedged, actively managed portfolio of between 20 to 40 global equities – also offer investors the added feature of incorporating both positive and negative ethical screens applying Warakirri’s proprietary Ethical Overlay, which has been utilised by Ethical investors including Charities and Foundations for more than two decades.

Jim McKay, Warakirri’s Managing Director said: “We have successfully run ethical portfolios for not-for-profit and other wholesale investors since 1993 and are seeing increased demand from advisers and their clients for investments with a focus on ethical and sustainable businesses that exhibit sound Environmental, Social and Governance practices.”

“This commitment to ethical investing that was central to the establishment of our business 26 years ago remains a central tenet of our business as we expand our offering to the retail market,” Mr. McKay added.

Warakirri is also launching a new Global Emerging Markets Fund that invests in a hand-picked, high quality portfolio of Emerging Market businesses with clear opportunities for growth.  It is managed by Northcape’s experienced investment team, focused on deep fundamental stock and sector research and will hold between 20 to 40 stocks.

While the Warakirri Global Emerging Markets Fund itself is a new fund with no performance track record, the Northcape emerging markets strategy has delivered strong returns since its inception in July 2008 to 30 June 2020, having produced a return of 11.91% per annum, outperforming its benchmark by 740 basis points, and a return of 12.52% over the past year, with outperformance of 1,405 basis points.

“We are excited to launch these retail funds with Northcape as the investment manager and Warakirri acting as the exclusive partner in Australia to distribute their equity capabilities to the non-institutional market.  Enabling access to these funds provides advisers and their clients with access to a quality equities manager with an impressive track record of delivering resilient, solid returns across all of their strategies,” said Mr. McKay.

Warakirri is the Responsible Entity (RE) of the new funds and investors can gain access with a minimum investment of $25,000.

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Andrew Mouchacca

Warakirri Asset Management Limited (Warakirri) has entered a strategic partnership with Flinders Investment Partners Pty Limited (Flinders) whereby Warakirri will acquire 50% of Flinders and provide capital to support the expansion and growth of the Flinders business.

As an established fund manager, Warakirri will provide Flinders with a full suite of services including administration, marketing and distribution. Warakirri’s support, together with the Flinders’ proven track record in Australian small cap investing, provides a strong platform for the growth of the Flinders business.

Established in 2015, Flinders is a specialist small companies manager that is responsible for managing the Flinders Emerging Companies Fund. With over 60 years of combined experience, the Flinders investment team, Andrew Mouchacca, Richard Macdougall and Naheed Rahman are partners in the business and investors in the fund.

Jim McKay, Warakirri Managing Director said: “We are excited to announce this partnership as we build out our multi boutique platform and importantly it provides Warakirri with a complimentary investment offering and diverse client base.  Our investment will ensure Flinders’ ongoing success and importantly enable the investment team to continue to focus on delivering top quartile returns for small cap investors.”

Andrew Mouchacca, Flinders Portfolio Manager said: “We are excited about our new partnership which provides us with a stable and solid foundation for our clients and together with the experience and successful track record of both teams, delivers a platform for success  into the future.”

Berkshire Global Advisors served as investment banking advisor to Warakirri on this transaction.

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In this newly created role, Scott will be responsible for expanding Warakirri’s relationships in the Family Office, High Net Worth (HNW) and Retail Advisory markets in NSW and Queensland. He will report into Warakirri’s Head of Distribution, Stuart Devlin.

The appointment coincides with Warakirri’s opening of a Sydney office where Scott will be based alongside the business’ Head of Marketing and Product, Joe Marassa, who commenced with the firm in March.

Jim McKay, Warakirri Managing Director said: “We are delighted that Scott has joined Warakirri. It’s an exciting time of significant  growth and development at Warakirri and his experience in working with sophisticated advisers who are demanding differentiated, quality solutions will help deliver on our ambition to deliver unique investment solutions  into the retail market.”

“Our recently announced strategic partnership with Northcape Capital where they will be the underlying investment manager for a number of Warakirri’s funds and we are  the exclusive partner for Northcape’s Australian, global and emerging market equity capabilities strongly positions us in the retail market,” Mr. McKay added.

Scott has over 14 years’ experience working in financial services across Commercial and Business Development roles. He joined Warakirri from Liverpool Partners where he worked in the Origination team helping source private investments in the mid-market. Prior to this, he worked in business development roles at Microequities Asset Management, Business Spectator and in the operations team at Macquarie Bank. Scott holds a Master of Commerce majoring in Business Strategy from UNSW.

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Michael Ryan

Northcape Capital Pty Ltd (Northcape) and Warakirri Asset Management Limited (Warakirri) have entered into a strategic partnership that will see Northcape become the underlying investment manager for a number of Warakirri’s funds.

This alliance positions Warakirri as the exclusive partner for Northcape’s Australian, global and emerging market equity capabilities in the Family Office, High Net Worth (HNW) and Retail segments of the market.

Northcape and Warakirri have a long-shared history, with Warakirri awarding Northcape their first mandate in 2005 – in fact, the 15th anniversary of this arrangement was celebrated on the 31st of March.

Northcape has a strong performance track record across all their equity offerings and were recognised at last year’s Australian Fund Manager Awards, taking out the coveted Golden Bull award for the Best Australian Equity strategy.

Jim McKay, Warakirri Managing Director said: “We are excited to announce this partnership and importantly it provides our existing clients with the expertise of one of Australia’s leading investment managers. Northcape has been the investment manager for part of our multi-manager client offerings for fifteen years and we have seen their investment approach perform through all market cycles. We are delighted to appoint them to solely manage our existing client’s investments going forward.”

“More broadly, this is an important step to assist in driving our growth ambitions and a key focus of the partnership is to provide new client groups with access to Northcape’s capabilities,” added Mr. McKay.

Michael Ryan, Northcape Managing Director said: “This partnership provides an ideal opportunity for us to diversify and grow our business, whilst maintaining our focus on our institutional clients. We were looking for a distribution partner that was aligned to our philosophy of delivering the highest level of service and quality investment outcomes to its clients and are pleased to have Warakirri as our partner as they expand and grow their business.”

“We have been delivering strong performance outcomes to institutional clients since 2005 and are excited about the prospects for Warakirri’s existing and future clients to gain access to Northcape’s capabilities,” added Mr. Ryan.

Warakirri will continue to apply its ethical overlay across its suite of ethical Australian and global equity offerings which it has been successfully implementing on behalf of clients since 1993.

As part of this partnership, Warakirri will award Northcape the first mandate for the Northcape Global Equity Strategy which was launched in August 2019. As at 31 March 2020, this strategy was more than 9.7% ahead of its benchmark CYTD.

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Joe Marassa

Warakirri Asset Management Limited (Warakirri) has appointed Joe Marassa to the newly created position of Head of Marketing and Product.

Based in Sydney, this role will report to Jim McKay, Managing Director.

In this role, Joe will lead the marketing, product and digital strategy for Warakirri and will be a part of the leadership team.

Mr. McKay said: “We are delighted that Joe has joined Warakirri. It’s an exciting time of rapid growth and development at Warakirri and his wealth of experience in asset management and financial services more broadly will be vital to assist drive our growth ambitions.”

“Joe’s experience spans a wide range of asset classes and investment vehicles across the retail, wholesale and institutional channels. He also has a proven track record of growing brands and executing effective marketing and product strategies for several funds management businesses”, added Mr. McKay.

Commenting on his new role, Joe said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to join Warakirri. The Head of Marketing and Product role is a greenfield opportunity; the organisation is undergoing transformational change and it’s an exciting time to build the Warakirri brand.”

Joe has over two decades of industry of experience across senior marketing and product roles and was most recently Head of Marketing at global asset manager, Franklin Templeton (FT). Prior to FT, he was Head of Distribution Services at ING Investment Management where he spent over eight years in strategic marketing, channel management and brand management roles.

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• Believe equities and real estate will perform best  in 2014 and over the next 10 years
• Still have some concerns about investing offshore

Australian investors optimistic about the future.

Australian investors are optimistic about reaching their financial goals by an overwhelming majority, according to the Franklin Templeton Global Investor Sentiment Survey conducted earlier this year. The online survey was conducted in twenty-two countries, including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore in the Asia Pacific region.

Achieving financial goals by staying the course

Australian investors plan to stay the course in 2014. Fewer investors are planning to make changes to their investment strategy this year than last year, and they are significantly less likely than other investors in the Asia Pacific region to make changes to their investment strategy in 2014.

Despite making few additions or changes to their portfolios, Australian investors expect their average annual rate of return to be higher in 2014 (8.4%) than it was in 2013 (8.1%), and even higher still over the next 10 years (11.1%).  An overwhelming 82% of investors are optimistic that they will reach their financial goals.

Asset class preferences

Approximately two-thirds of Australian investors believe that the local stock market will continue to do well in 2014, and offer the best equity returns over the next 10 years.

Thirty-four per cent of Australian investors plan to increase their investment, or begin investing, in real estate this year. This is in line with the increased optimism surrounding the property market – 70% of investors (compared to 59% in 2013) believe that property will be one of the top three best performing asset classes this year. That number jumps to 75% when considering how it will perform over the next 10 years.

In terms of fixed income, 50% and 46% of investors respectively think that Australia will offer the best fixed income returns in 2014 and over the next 10 years.  This is despite a little over half of investors surveyed expect interest rates to rise in 2014 and the fact that the domestic asset class has been outside the top 20 best performing bond markets globally in the past two calendar years.

“While investors increasingly recognize that it is important to keep an allocation to equities in their portfolio to help achieve their long-term financial goals, there is still some way to go when it comes to educating investors about their fixed income investments,” said Jim McKay, Head of Advisory Services at Franklin Templeton Investments.

“With interest rates in key developed markets at historically low levels, fixed income investors seeking higher yields should be considering a broader range of countries outside of the traditional G3. Many of these offer better economic growth prospects, have increasingly sound government budgets, as well as the potential for higher returns and currency appreciation. For example, select bond markets in Asia, peripheral Europe and Latin America offer compelling value and yet are not on the radar of many local investors,” said Mr. McKay.

Top concerns on investing in global developed markets

While half of Australian investors do not plan significant changes to their equity and bond investments in 2014, three times as many plan to invest more in both domestic and global equities as in bonds. However, 35% highlight the large fiscal debt in the US as a major concern about investing in the US, while 32% still rank the Eurozone debt crisis as their top concern about investing in Europe.

“Although sentiment amongst investors towards Europe remains cautious and ongoing market volatility might be a cause for concern, we believe markets around the globe will gain momentum and investors can capture a number of opportunities in both equity and bond markets in 2014 by looking beyond their home countries,” Mr. McKay added.

Almost half (46%) of those surveyed say they are likely to seek professional financial advice this year and this may represent a unique opportunity for advisers according to Mr. McKay.

“Navigating global markets can be complex and investors can benefit from working with a financial adviser to appropriately position their portfolios to meet their investment goals,” said Mr. McKay. “These survey results underscore the importance of investor education, especially among investors who have not experienced as many market cycles.”

More detailed findings from the survey can be found at Investor Sentiment Survey 2014.

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