InvestorDaily

InvestorDaily

Investment Magazine

Australia’s superannuation industry recovered in 2019 with the global equity market, posting the biggest return since 2013. The median growth fund, where the bulk of Australian super assets are allocated, returned 14.5 per cent for the calendar year, according to an estimate compiled by Chant West. A 24 per cent rally for domestic equities in 2019 and a gain of as much as 27 per cent in international shares boosted the results.

“Fund members will have every reason to be delighted when they see their end-December balances,” said Chant West senior investment research manager Mano Mohankumar. “It’s a much better result than what we could have expected at the start of the year and a major turnaround from a year ago.” The results come as the prudential regulator increases its focus on fund performance after publicly shaming the laggards of the industry when it published the results of its heatmaps last month. A 2 per cent decline for the benchmark ASX 300 Index in December shaved off some of last year’s return for the industry which has the highest allocation to equities among the world’s seven largest pension fund markets.

The rest of this article can be found at investmentmagazine.com.au.

InvestorDaily

InvestorDaily

Earlier in January, BlackRock – the world’s largest asset manager – joined Climate Action 100+, a group that pressures companies to divest from fossil fuels. It marked a massive change for the investment giant, whose record on climate change has been shaky at best. BlackRock supported just five of 41 climate proposals at company meetings through 2019, and was more likely to support management at fossil fuel companies, according to advocacy group Majority Action.

In fact, BlackRock voted against all of Climate Action 100+ resolutions, meaning their joining the group must have been awkward. To be a fly on that wall. But we probably shouldn’t hold past sins against them. After all, Larry Fink seems to get it. It’s rare, even within the growing ESG community, for somebody to wrap their head around the huge impact that climate change will have on not just money, but the world. “Will cities, for example, be able to afford their infrastructure needs as climate risk reshapes the market for municipal bonds?” Mr Fink wrote in his letter to CEOs.

The rest of this article can be found at investordaily.com.au.

Investment Magazine

Australia’s superannuation industry recovered in 2019 with the global equity market, posting the biggest return since 2013. The median growth fund, where the bulk of Australian super assets are allocated, returned 14.5 per cent for the calendar year, according to an estimate compiled by Chant West. A 24 per cent rally for domestic equities in 2019 and a gain of as much as 27 per cent in international shares boosted the results.

“Fund members will have every reason to be delighted when they see their end-December balances,” said Chant West senior investment research manager Mano Mohankumar. “It’s a much better result than what we could have expected at the start of the year and a major turnaround from a year ago.” The results come as the prudential regulator increases its focus on fund performance after publicly shaming the laggards of the industry when it published the results of its heatmaps last month.

The rest of this article can be found at investmentmagazine.com.au.