The former head of Australia wealth at PGIM has taken up a new role as an investment specialist at Lazard Asset Management.
Benjamin Price has joined Lazard to act as a conduit between the investment team of the Global Listed Infrastructure and Global Equity Franchise strategies and the distribution team to service Lazard Asset Management’s institutional, adviser and direct investor clients.
He previously spent two years at PGIM working with its wealth management distribution team where he was responsible for developing and implementing the firm’s wealth management distribution strategy to provide global investment solutions to the Australian intermediated wholesale advice market.
Prior to this, he spent over 16 years at Macquarie Group as the head of wholesale distribution.
He will be based in Sydney alongside portfolio managers and analysts Warryn Robertson and John Mulquiney, supported by Lazard’s global trading, operations and investment resources in New York and London.
Paul Cuddy, chief executive of Lazard Asset Management Pacific Co and head of Asia, said: “Ben’s background and experience will enable us to strengthen our connectivity with clients and potential new investors in these strategies. We continue to invest in our outstanding Global Listed Infrastructure and Global Equity Franchise capabilities and are delighted to add someone to the team with such a track record of success.”
The Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure strategy is made up of approximately 25 to 50 companies from a select subset of the global infrastructure market that Lazard believes provides higher revenue predictability, profitability and lower volatility.
Earlier this year, the firm announced its first ETF in Australia where it transformed its global listed infrastructure fund into an ETF structure, available on Cboe Global Markets. The ETF is a unit class derived from the Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure Fund, which was established in 2005 and has $2 billion in funds under management as of 31 May 2024.
The Lazard Global Equity Franchise strategy invests in 25–30 listed companies which the firm considers as having an “economic franchise” of predictable earnings and large competitive advantages.
Lazard was the winner of this year’s Fund Manager of the Year award at the Money Management Fund Manager of the Year Awards. Lazard Defensive Australian Equity Fund was named Australian Large Cap Equity Fund of the Year, while the Infrastructure Fund of the Year award went to Lazard Global Listed Infrastructure Fund.
