AMP Capital reshapes its Australian Equities business
AMP Capital has decided to reshape its Australian Equities business to match its clients’ needs by focusing on areas where there is long-term demand.
The company also said it would no longer offer benchmark-aware, core Australian equities products.
Instead, it would move to a model where its Australian equities fund managers would operate in three focused teams: equity income, small caps and systematic, which would manage highly differentiated products.
Additionally, the systematic team would work closely with its environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment research team to provide clients with ESG-screened portfolios and support the fundamental teams via intelligent screening, the company said.
At the same time, the investment process for the equity income and small cap strategies would remain unchanged while the investment process of internally-managed, ESG screened funds had been strengthened.
These portfolios would be expected to add alpha across the investment cycle by excluding stocks with poor ESG credentials while increasing holdings in those stocks with strong ESG credentials.
As a result of these changes, which are effective immediately, a number of the current members of the Australian Equities team would leave their roles including the current head of Australian fundamental equities, Michael Price, AMP Capital said.
The members of the Australian Equities team are now as follows:
Equity income:
- Tom Young, co-portfolio manager
- Dermont Ryan, co-portfolio manager
- -analyst to be advised
Small Caps:
- Phillip Hudak, co-portfolio manager
- Co-portfolio manager to be advised
- Kent Williams, analyst
- Analyst to be advised
Systematic:
- Genevieve Murray, co-portfolio manager
- Co-portfolio manager to be advised
- Joseph Duncan, analyst
- Vaibhav Rastogi, analyst
The company said the recruitment to fill the remaining positions was underway.
AMP Capital Global’s chief investment officer of equities, David Allen, said: “We believe demand for benchmark-aware, core Australian equities products is in structural decline over the long term.
“The decision to change our Australian Equities business is part of a deliberate strategy to set up the business for growth by responding to shifting client needs and industry trends.”
Recommended for you
There is one specific risk that is a significantly higher concern for financial services directors compared to companies overall and is impacting their risk appetite, according to the AICD.
Global fund managers are shunning bonds, with the asset class seeing the largest drop in allocations in more than 20 years.
Australian Ethical has seen its funds under management reach $10 billion, driven by organic customer growth and superannuation contributions.
Financial advisers will have access to private equity investments run by WTW for the first time as it launches a pooled fund to provide savers with access to traditionally institutional assets.
