Nikko Asset Management has clarified its intentions for Tyndall Investments following its takeover of the fund manager last week.
Charles Beazley, Nikko AM’s head of international and institutional business, said his company’s aspiration was to be the world’s finest Asian investment management company, and that couldn’t be done without Australia.
“Australia is 25 per cent of the Asia ex-Japan MSCI … If you want to have an opinion on the Asian markets, I really don’t understand how you can do that without having a very strong opinion on what is going on in the Australian market,” he said.
“Geo-strategically and geo-politically you have never been so important to the rest of the Asian world … You also have the fourth largest mutual fund market in the world right now which is getting everyone’s attention.
He also cited Australia’s growing population and the growing pool of superannuation as key factors for the decision.
Managing director of Tyndall Investments, Craig Hobart, said the takeover presented Tyndall with opportunities that otherwise would have been close to impossible.
“The fastest growing middle class in the world is in Asia and we want to be part of that, since we exist for the mum and dad investors. It would have taken 10 to 15 years for us to expand our distribution into Asia on our own, and now we’ve done it in three months,” he said.
As a result of the Tyndall acquisition and the current acquisition of DBS Asset Management in Singapore, Nikko AM will have a total of $150 billion assets under management, 40 per cent of which will be located outside of Japan.
Beazley also flagged Australia as “going to hot up quite a lot” over the next few years as an investment destination.
“If you think you were attractive before, you should just see the amount of money that is waiting to come here from Japan. Over $50 billion dollars has come to Australia from Japan, we brought some of it, and there is an awful lot more behind it. You have interest rates, you have regulators who are well respected and you have financial stability,” he said.
