Harden joins from ING Investment Management Ltd where he was chief executive officer of the Asia-Pacific business, comprising 1,200 staff across 10 countries, with $85 billion in assets under management.

“Alan has the skills and experience to lead the expansion of BNY Mellon Asset Management in Asia-Pacific as we continue to grow our retail offerings and institutional business in the region,” Arledge said. “Alan has strong credentials and is widely respected in the region having spent over 20 years in Asia and the Middle East in a variety of leadership positions. He has already demonstrated his ability to manage an Asian investment management business through a range of economic environments, including the recent financial crisis.”
x
Harden, who is also named a member of BNY Mellon Asset Management’s executive committee, will be based in Hong Kong. In this new position for the company, he will have responsibility for all distribution, strategic, financial and operating plans and business development across Asia-Pacific for BNY Mellon Asset Management. He will support BNY Mellon Asset Management’s relationship with key clients in the region, including sovereign wealth funds. In addition he will work closely with BNY Mellon’s chairman of Asia-Pacific, Steve Lackey, in delivering the whole firm and ensuring clients have greater awareness and access to the company’s leading capabilities. Harden will also join the company’s Asia-Pacific Executive Committee which comprises the heads of each of BNY Mellon’s businesses in the region.
x
Mitchell Harris, president of investment management at BNY Mellon, said: “The Asia-Pacific region continues to exhibit strong growth for investment management companies and is home to some of the most sophisticated investors globally. Alan’s depth of experience will help drive our business forward and sustain our momentum in meeting and exceeding our clients’ investment expectations. Placing a senior member of our Asset Management team in the region is a strong statement of our commitment and desire to deepen our relationships with clients.”
x
Prior to joining ING, Harden served as chief executive officer of Alliance Trust PLC and was head of Citigroup Asset Management’s Asia-Pacific operations. He was a non-executive board member of the Court of St. Andrews University, a trustee of the Al Maktoum Institute of Aberdeen University (he remains an honorary fellow), and a non-executive trustee of the Scottish Community Charity Foundation. He is an Honorary Professor of the School of Finance and Accounting at Dundee University.
x
BNY Mellon has been conducting business in the Asia-Pacific region for over 50 years. The company has 16 offices in 12 countries in the region, including full-service branches in Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Taipei, Melbourne and Sydney, and employs around 7,000 employees. Businesses represented in the Asia-Pacific region include asset servicing, asset management, treasury services, depositary receipts, corporate trust, broker-dealer services, alternative investment services and global markets.

The post BNY Mellon Asset Management Names Alan Harden as CEO of Asia-Pacific appeared first on AdviserVoice.

x
AustralianSuper today announced the appointment of Nickie Scriven to the newly-created position of Head of Brand.  Ms. Scriven started with AustralianSuper yesterday.

x
Ms. Scriven will report to James Coyle, General Manager of Marketing and Communications.

x
Mr. Coyle said that Ms. Scriven will play a key part in achieving AustralianSuper’s objective of becoming the iconic brand in the Australian superannuation industry.

x
“The new position of Head of Brand has been established to ensure the AustralianSuper brand continues to develop strongly.

x
“Brand strength is a key driver of growth and scale and scale is the key means by which AustralianSuper will continue to deliver improved benefits to our members.  These benefits include reduced costs through scale economies and the negotiating power that allows us to provide our members with better products and services, a better group insurance offer and a better suite of member educational materials.

x
“This is a very important role for the fund and I am looking forward to Nickie driving the development of our brand as the leading superannuation brand in the country.”

x
Ms. Scriven has extensive experience in strategic marketing across retail and financial services. Before joining AustralianSuper, she was founder and director of investment and marketing consultancy Budding Enterprises Australia. Previous roles also include Media Strategy Principle – Strategy and Marketing for NAB and Group Advertising Sales Manager for News Limited.

x
Ms. Scriven has a Bachelor of Arts in Performance Studies and a Masters of Marketing from Monash University.

The post AustralianSuper appoints Head of Brand appeared first on AdviserVoice.

X
Maple-Brown Abbott (MBA) portfolio manager, Charles Dalziell leads the Listed Property team managing the Fund, a capability which has been part of the MBA portfolio for 24 years.

X
In its report, Lonsec stated that it “considers MBA’s investment approach to the Fund to be reasonably transparent, straightforward and consistently applied.  The process has a clear focus on valuation, and the portfolio is considered to be broadly consistent with the Manager’s ‘value’ based investment philosophy.”

X
“The Portfolio Manager then has full responsibility and accountability for constructing the portfolio from the prospective ‘Buy’ list.”

X
“Lonsec believes the steps taken by the Manager to construct the portfolio ensure the stock selection process is robust, without significantly impeding the ability of Dalziell to impart his views into the portfolio.”

X
The Fund was launched in November 2010 and Mulligan is delighted with the early level of adviser support.  It is also rated RECOMMENDED by Zenith.

X
“I consider this very good timing to enter the LPT market. Due to the impact of the GFC on this sector, I am delighted to partner with MBA, as their conservative approach resounds with the adviser market for this asset class. This is the first time the MBA listed property capability has been offered to the retail market.” said Mulligan.

X
The All Star MBA Listed Property Fund joins the stable of premium funds including the All Star IAM Australian Share Fund, which is currently ranked as number one across all time periods (three months and after) as reported by Morningstar (as at 31 January 2011).

X
The Fund’s stable-mate, the All Star Income Fund (managed by Kaplan Funds Management, an absolute return manager focussed on income producing strategies) delivers “a high yield and a strong dividend stream with complete liquidity”, said Mulligan.

X
The All Star Nomura China Fund presents a risk-controlled opportunity for investment in China. It is managed by Nomura Asset Management, a conservative manager with proven expertise in this market.

The post All Star Maple-Brown Abbott Listed Property Fund earns “Investment Grade” rating by Lonsec*. appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Lin Ngin, Senior Investment Analyst with Lonsec commented, “The distribution of ratings in the 2010 review has a distinct positive skew, due to our focus on reviewing a selective list of high quality offerings, rather than just rating a large number of products.”

Sector themes

Fund flows

Retail fund inflows across the range of funds rated in this sector review have generally been flat. However managers researched by Lonsec have reported greater interest in hedge fund products from institutional clients.

“Although we have seen signs of life in this sector, with US13.7 billion of inflows into the global hedge fund industry in Q1 2010, this is still substantially lower than the US$100+ billion per annum in inflows from 2002 – 2007,” said Ngin.

“An interesting point regarding these inflows is the destination of the money – of the US$13.7 billion inflow, US$15 billion went to larger, established hedge funds managers – this means a number of managers experienced net outflow.”

New products

In last year’s Lonsec review, there were 10 new funds rated – this year, just one.

“Not surprisingly, the dearth of new retail offerings is intertwined with the lack of retail inflows,” observed Ngin.

“This sector is very prone to ‘flavour of the month’ products, whether they be new managed futures products in 2009 (this strategy had a very strong 2008) or commodities based funds.”

Regulation

A major fallout from the global financial crisis has been the policy and regulatory response by government authorities world-wide, particularly in relation to regulating the hedge fund industry.  Many of these regulations remain in the proposal stage and have not been enacted.

“Lonsec is generally supportive of any steps to improve transparency, although some proposed regulations such as remuneration controls, leverage limits and bans on shorting appear to be driven by hostility to the hedge fund industry as a fallout of the financial crisis.

Date: 28 July 2010

The post Lonsec releases 2010 Sector Review – Single Manager Hedge Funds appeared first on AdviserVoice.