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At AlbaCore, we focus on the long-term. As one of Europe’s leading alternative credit specialists, we invest in private capital solutions, opportunistic and dislocated credit, and structured products.
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Specialist in Asia Pacific, China, India and South East Asia and Global Emerging Market equities.
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Our philosophy is very simple. We are constantly searching for high quality businesses and when we acquire them, we will work relentlessly with them to create long-term sustainable value through innovation, ESG-led and proactive asset management.
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formerly Realindex Investments
Leader in active quantitative equities across Australian equities, global equities, emerging markets and global small companies.
Backed by a unique blend of research, portfolio construction and risk management, focused on uncovering original insights and translating them into investment strategies that are active and systematic, aiming to generate alpha.
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At Stewart Investors, we believe in putting people first. Our investment world-view is of a series of partnerships – with each other, with our clients, with the companies we invest in, the people who buy their goods and services, and with the wider society in which we all live and work.
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AlbaCore Capital Group is one of Europe’s leading alternative credit specialists, investing in private capital solutions, opportunistic and dislocated credit, CLOs, and structured products.
Head of Short Term Investments and Global Credit Tony Togher discusses negative interest rates in Australia, the ongoing role of cash in portfolios and gives insight into how the largest cash manager in Australia continues to add value when rates are low.
Global credit markets have been challenged in 2018 and spreads have widened. Asian issuers have not been immune from this volatility. Following another default by a Chinese issuer, our Asian Fixed Income and Emerging Markets Debt team take stock of where markets are currently, what opportunities (if any) are present in the region, and outline how investors can gain exposure to the asset class if desired.
First Sentier Investors’ Global Diversified Infrastructure Fund signs cash advance facility including new Green Tranche Credit Facility
Facing our largest deficit since 1945, the question is how has the Federal Government set Australia’s course for the next decade. While the focus of the budget stimulus is aimed at mitigating some of the economic risks, our debt is forecast to climb to 44% of GDP by 2024 – a level inconsistent with a AAA credit rating.
Leading global investment manager, First Sentier Investors, and boutique European alternative credit manager, AlbaCore Capital Group Limited (AlbaCore) have received all regulatory approvals pertaining to their strategic partnership.
Leading global investment manager, First Sentier Investors (FSI), has entered into a strategic partnership with a leading European credit manager, AlbaCore Capital Group (AlbaCore), making a majority investment in the business.
We believe bond market demand in Asia represents an opportunity for fixed income investors. There are many factors driving this positivity; Asia’s strong growth outlook relative to other parts of the world, its demographics, the diversification within the universe of issuers and compared volatility and returns with other fixed income markets. As we look towards a post-Covid world, what case can be made for investing in Asia USD Investment Grade Credit?
As shareholders question ESG practices more than ever before, we spoke to our clients about how they are thinking about ESG when managing their funds. From reducing emissions to corporate culture and ESG risk assessments, the conversation highlighted the industry’s approach is not uniform but we are all grappling with the same issues.
A new study has found that on average people could be ingesting approximately 5 grams of plastic every week, which is the equivalent weight of a credit card.
Global investment manager, First Sentier Investors, today announced changes to its investment capabilities within Australia.
Find out more about our short term investment cash funds today. They aim to provide a regular income from investments in money market securities.
The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has seen most financial assets sell-off across the board, including securities in the traditionally defensive listed property sector, as investors grapple with how the drastic government and central bank responses to the crisis will augur for property landlords in the shorter term.
The First Sentier Wholesale Strategic Cash Fund (‘the Fund’) reported a positive return (0.0032 or 0.32%, gross of fees) for the month of October 2022. This result was a welcome development following the low interest rate environment of the last 2 years, which has seen cash as an asset class struggle to produce higher returns and gain interest. With inflation becoming a key focus globally, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has begun tightening monetary policy through hiking interest rates, which has seen increasingly positive prospective returns from cash portfolios. The Fund maintains ample liquidity and is well positioned to capitalise off of the current market conditions. This note will dive into the dominant factors driving performance as well as further detail of the investment team’s longstanding approach to managing the portfolio which remains unchanged.
Shares, bonds, and alternative asset classes tend to dominate media attention and headlines, but there's a forgotten asset class that underpins most investors’ portfolios: cash. Record low interest rates around the world saw cash fall out of favour with investors in recent years, but prospective returns from cash portfolios are now rising again owing to higher official interest rates in key regions. In this paper, Tony Togher, Head of Fixed Income, Short Term Investments and Global Credit, explains some of the different investments that fall under the category of 'cash', some of the risks to be aware of and, finally, outlines the investment case for cash.
With the support of MUFG Bank, Ltd., (MUFG Bank), First Sentier Investors has launched a private debt capability focused initially on loans to the renewable energy sector.
Learn about investing in fixed income today. First Sentier Investors' on-the-ground teams share investment ideas uncovered in developed and emerging markets.
APRA market communication on capital call expectations – 1 November, 2022
We are entering a new era. The year 2024 will be unpredictable and clouded by many uncertainties. It will be marked by geopolitical risks, the ongoing taming of the inflation beast, and how the US Presidential election will impact markets.
Afterpay is one of Australia’s most discussed stocks. But with key buy now, pay later players only scratching the surface of the Australian retail market, Duskho Bajic, Head of Australian Equities Growth, sees room for new competition. Dushko explores the evolving buy now, pay later landscape and shares how he identifies companies poised for success in an interview with Livewire.
While the wild swings in share, credit, currency, and commodity markets have garnered most of the attention in the months following the COVID-19 outbreak, cash markets in Australia have seen some highly unusual movements that demand further scrutiny.
Podcast: debt markets from a global perspective
People are are at the heart of our success as a leading global asset manager
This timeline highlights some of the market events during the last few weeks and how our experienced team has navigated the market volatility. We also highlight what to look out for in the weeks ahead and highlight some positives amongst all the negative news.
Global asset management group focused on providing high quality, long-term investment capabilities to clients. We bring together independent teams of active, specialist investors who share a common commitment to responsible investment principles.
First Sentier Investors, a leading global investment manager is pleased to announce the appointment of Adele Swan as the new Chief People and Culture Officer, effective 24 June. Ms Swan is based in Edinburgh, reporting to the CEO, Mark Steinberg.
In April 2019, we published an article titled ‘China’s Inclusion in the Bloomberg Barclay’s Global Aggregate Index’ where we discussed the implications of such a move. Just a year later and a lot has changed in the world and some of the points made in the research piece last year are worth revisiting.
First Sentier Investors today announced unit holders have voted in favour of a change in responsible entity (RE) for a number of funds from Colonial First State to The Trust Company.
First Sentier Investors, a leading global investment manager, is pleased to announce the appointment of Amanda Gazal as the new Chief Operating Officer (COO). In this role, Gazal who will be based in the Sydney office, will be responsible for overseeing the company's day-to-day operations and driving operational excellence to support the organisation’s growth strategy.
Global investment manager Igneo Infrastructure Partners (Igneo), has reached an agreement to acquire a 100% interest in Elliott Green Power Australia (EGP) via its Australian renewables business, Atmos Renewables.
Credit portfolios with genuine Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) integration could be a canary in the coal mine for potentially difficult-to-quantify risks and opportunities, including those likely to stem from climate change and the energy transition. While governments globally move at different speeds to put in place net zero policies, ESG-focused credit investors are taking decisive, early action to reflect these factors in their portfolio allocations.
We pose the question – what if we could develop a way of predicting which companies are more likely to be suffering distress, and which were not? The idea contains three parts: A. Certain individual observations or metrics can separately tell us about stocks that might – in the near future – find themselves in trouble. B. If we combine enough of these metrics together – without overfitting – we can get synergy between the factors. C. If we build a smart model that is designed specifically to target corporate distress, then we can apply and refine the predictions from the metrics in a better way.
Leading global investment manager, First Sentier Investors (FSI), today announced the outcome of a review of its existing investment capabilities against its strategy.
We crossed six US states meeting over 70 infrastructure management teams as well as customers and suppliers at three conferences. We visited three corporate head offices, several regulators and toured the country’s largest nuclear power plant.
Recently many investors and market participants have been perplexed as the VIX and volatility in general have decreased – even given the backdrop of rising political uncertainty and geopolitical risk. Here we analyse the factors currently keeping volatility low and use history to explore why the VIX may not be the best measure of risk and uncertainty.
Land, Labour, Capital and Entrepreneurship. These are the well-known “Factors of Production” as defined by classical economists. The Entrepreneur (or Company) is the one that combines these factors to earn a profit. However, in our view, each of these factors has been overly exploited over the past 20-30 years and everything has become secondary to “profit” (to be used interchangeably with “market capitalisation”, albeit the link between the two has grown tenuous in recent years). The chart below, which shows how corporate profits have grown in relation to GDP in the US, captures the trend well — the ratio has more than doubled over 30 years. In other words, the pendulum has perhaps swung too far in favour of capital market participants.
At Realindex, our ongoing research is moving strongly into the area of natural language processing (NLP), and how AI tools can be used to generate alpha.
The latest reporting season demonstrated the pace of economic recovery in Australia, and painted a positive outlook for quality Australian companies. Below are some insights that investors may consider as they look at their Australian equities portfolios in 2021.
Leading global investment manager, First Sentier Investors (FSI), today announced the appointment of Yoshiki Ueno to the role of Deputy Chief Executive Officer
First Sentier Investors (FSI), a leading global investment manager today announced new Director of the Sustainable Investment Institute
First Sentier Investors launches the Sustainable Investment Institute
While the pandemic is still far from over, a number of key leading indicators point to a healthy and broad-based recovery in China. Industrial production, trade activity and retail sales have been strong; and in stark contrast to the lockdowns and travel restrictions in early 2020, domestic travel, tourism and the leisure sectors in China have sprung back to life.
Since our last update, global markets have not been short of action and the manic behaviour characterising today’s markets has taken investors on another rollercoaster ride. While not quite comparable to the market movements seen during the dark days of March 2020, the recent correction — especially in China-related companies — has been notable. Yet, from a market perspective, a sense of normality is finally starting to emerge after the more speculative phases over the past 12-18 months. Companies related to the Work- or Consumed-From-Home environment are starting to discount a more realistic outlook and, equally, franchises with good long-term prospects that were experiencing temporary uncertainties caused by the pandemic have, for the most part, regained some of the lost ground as their underlying business fundamentals continue to improve.
The most attractive point about India is that there are about 6,000 listed companies across a diverse range of sectors. That gives us the opportunity to invest in high quality businesses across a range of industries. This is unlike some other emerging markets where investors might find themselves restricted to only a handful of industries. Additionally, India has one of the oldest stock markets in the world. The culture of equity ownership is prevalent and people are familiar with the rules that come with it. Over the years, governance standards, the composition of a board, gender diversity, and protection of minority shareholders — they have all improved. Over time, corporate governance regulations in India have also strengthened significantly. As regulators have tightened rules related to company privatisation, royalty payments and disclosure of related party transactions, the protection of minority shareholder interests has consistently improved. Another aspect that makes India stand out from her emerging market peers is the quality of companies there. In India, you will find many high-quality private companies
Head of Global Property Securities Stephen Hayes: Global city populations continue to grow, driven by urbanisation. The provision of housing for growing populations is a major challenge for many countries and cities. Adequate housing is a factor that influences a city’s mobility of labour, social wellbeing and commerce levels. Government housing policies are typically viewed holistically with policies covering social, private and rental housing. New supply is not always efficient and can be problematic particularly in densely populated cities.
With strong long term growth prospects and a track record of resilience through economic downturns, this increasingly institutionalised property sector is a defensive play for investors.
Along with business travel demand, the behaviour of Chinese tourists is expected to have a significant impact on the investment opportunity for airports globally as travel restrictions are lifted. The return of Chinese travellers to the airways is one of the great uncertainties affecting airports in a post-pandemic world, a new paper outlines. The return of business travellers is also being closely tracked, with early data suggesting that both business travellers and Chinese tourists will likely return to flying with different preferences and behavioural patterns compared to pre-2019. The paper, entitled ‘A Pre-Flight Checklist For A Post-Pandemic World’, is written by William Thackray, an analyst in First Sentier Investors’ Global Listed Infrastructure team. William examines impacts on airport companies that might stem from changing passenger mixes. He also looks at a range of other factors affecting airports including the evolution of route planning, changing agreements with airport retailers and the increased focus on real estate development projects by airports.
Public policy support for infrastructure investment to remain strong globally, especially for the replacement of aged infrastructure assets and buildout of renewables. Utilities are in the midst of a multi-decade structural growth story. But higher capex needs to be managed in the context of affordability, reliability and sustainability. Earnings likely to be more resilient than global equities, albeit growth tempered by higher debt costs and increased regulatory and political risks. We expect the asset class to deliver mid-single digit EBITDA, EPS and DPS1 growth over the next two years despite a potentially challenging economic backdrop.
Listed infrastructure has offered investors attractive risk-adjusted returns and lower correlations to traditional asset classes. This outcome has been achieved by providing effective downside protection during periods of equity market weakness.
Despite straddling two of the most disrupted years in living memory, the FY20-21 reporting season was overall very positive. In our analysis, around one-third of companies [that we cover] surprised us on the upside, around one-third delivered in line with expectation, and one-third were below expectation. Our investment approach focuses on selecting companies with strong return on equity and return on invested capital, and these companies delivered superior returns overall. We actually saw EPS grow by 26% over the previous corresponding period, and expect a further 20% growth in the financial year ahead. Put simply, investors in quality stocks were rewarded by strong performance through the reporting season. We were also pleased to see that overall, Australian companies have strong cashflow and balance sheets.
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