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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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The investment world conflates what ‘absolute return’ and ‘total return’ actually mean – and throwing in the latest buzzword ‘unconstrained’ has only made things worse. Our infographic cheat sheet demystifies some common terms used to describe fixed income investment approaches.
Learn about investing in fixed income today. First Sentier Investors' on-the-ground teams share investment ideas uncovered in developed and emerging markets.
Asia is projected to become the oldest region in the world – by the 2030s, it will be home to around 60% of the world’s elderly. Jamie Grant, Head of Emerging Markets Debt and Asian Fixed Income at CFSGAM, explains why these demographic shifts are expected to have a significant impact on demand for Asia’s fixed income markets over the next decade.
Benchmark Relative. Absolute Return. Total Return? Global unconstrained? Here our global fixed income team demystify some of the common language used to describe approaches to fixed income investing – explaining the differences – and how they can be applied to various objective-based strategies within a broader portfolio.
People are are at the heart of our success as a leading global asset manager
Access a global opportunity set with the on-the-ground research and skill of specialist emerging markets investors.
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.
Global investment manager, First Sentier Investors, today announced changes to its investment capabilities within Australia.
A diverse range of global, regional and sector based equity, multi-asset and fixed income investment strategies and funds
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.
Find out more about our short term investment cash funds today. They aim to provide a regular income from investments in money market securities.
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.
There’s a reasonable chance of achieving your investment objective over the long term by sticking to the plan. Not so fast! Here's why it's time to review your approach to asset allocation with volatile times ahead.
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.
First Sentier Investors is the world-leading provider of specialist investment capabilities. Discover how we provide research-led active investment management.
The Realindex Australian Share Value-Class A Fund is a real achiever that, since its inception in 2008, has delivered long-term outperformance compared to its benchmark for investors.
The well-established First Sentier Investors Australian Small and Mid-Caps team has extended its small companies long short strategy to retail investors for the first time
Mon 29 Nov 2021: David Allen has been appointed to the role of Global Head of Investment Management. David brings with him over 20 years of global asset management experience where he specialised in building investment businesses and leading investment teams.
Leading global investment manager, First Sentier Investors, today announced the completion of its corporate rebrand from First State Investments to First Sentier Investors in all markets ex Australia, effective today. In Australia, the firm has operated as First Sentier Investors since September 2019, where it was earlier known as Colonial First State Global Asset Management.
Leading global investment manager, Colonial First State Global Asset Management (CFSGAM) today announced the completion of its sale from Commonwealth Bank of Australia to Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation
Separately Managed Accounts can create less administration compared to direct equities and managed funds, freeing advisers’ time to focus on clients and growing their practices.
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.
2024 was a year marked by global inflation and economic growth concerns against a backdrop of worldwide elections. As we head into 2025, volatility will remain an enduring constant.
First Sentier Investors, a leading global investment manager, today announces that it is setting its first nature targets as a Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) Adopter, in the lead up to the inaugural Global Nature Positive Summit hosted in Sydney this week.
Access one of Australia's largest and longest-running geared share managers. Selecting quality stocks based on their fit for leverage, we favour essential characteristics like strong balance sheets, ability to grow cash flows through market environments and liquidity.
Leading global investment manager, First Sentier Investors (FSI), has appointed Kate Turner as Global Head of Responsible Investment (RI) and bolstered its RI team with four new appointments.
Now available on demand: Adviser Roadshow 2023
Millions of people in the developing world are just one broken rickshaw or bad harvest away from the breadline. These are the people that need insurance the most – but they often struggle to get it. In the Sustainable Funds Group at the Stewart Investors team within First Sentier Investors, we’ve been leading an industry initiative to engage with major insurers with the goal of making coverage widely available to people on low incomes. We believe that this is an opportunity for these firms to build their customer base and generate profit both in the short and long term, and meaningfully contribute to the wellbeing of the societies in which they do business.
First Sentier Investors is pleased to announce two key leadership appointments, effective 1 January 2025. Harry Moore is appointed to the newly created role of Chief Commercial Officer; and Lauren Prendiville is appointed as the new Global Head of Distribution and Marketing.
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.
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.
First Sentier Investors, a leading global investment manager, is pleased to announce the appointment of Jamie Downing as the new Head of Distribution in EMEA, as the business continues to strengthen its global distribution team.
First Sentier Investors has today announced it will apply to list its first Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) on the ASX, the First Sentier Geared Australian Share Fund Complex ETF (The Fund, ASX:LEVR), which is expected to commence trading mid-May 2025.
Government fiscal and debt metrics are strong but pro-growth fiscal policy risks deterioration. At the point they are forced into using fiscal buffers, the market will have repriced the risk sharply.
2024 was a good year for global listed infrastructure. Strong earnings for energy midstream and a step-change in the earnings growth outlook for utilities helped the asset class to shrug off rising bond yields and political uncertainty.
The outlook for the global economy and financial markets looks more uncertain today than it has for a long time. Both interest rates and inflation have risen sharply. There is a growing consensus that much of the world will shortly be experiencing slowing economic growth.
Sharing resources has gone on for as long as humans have been living in tribes. But without the enabling role of the internet or mobile devices it is hard work in a large complex society with a myriad of goods and services. The internet is now helping to solve this problem.
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.
Vaccine rollouts and government stimulus have led to expectations of higher economic growth, inflation and interest rates. This has put pressure on listed infrastructure returns with the asset class significantly underperforming global equities over the past 12 months. But with over 70% of the investible universe able to pass through the cost of inflation to consumers, are these fears overblown? Global Listed Infrastructure Portfolio Manager Trent Koch explains why inflation can be positive for many infrastructure assets and how market uncertainty has created a compelling investment case for the asset class.
Global listed infrastructure companies outperformed both global equities and bonds in 2022. We believe the financial and economic factors contributing to this outperformance may remain in play in 2023.
In 2020, one group of companies has done particularly well – the popular digital technology companies focused on e-commerce, delivery and entertainment, to name a few industries. In emerging markets, they dominate the Chinese market; but they can also be found in Korea, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. We do not own many of these in the strategy; and as such, we are often asked: What holds us back? After all, they have performed well and – at least on paper – should have the prerequisite to generate strong returns and free cash flow, given their often high gross margins, negative working capital profiles and asset light nature. While we are not disputing the potential for this in the future, we would argue for cautiousness on most of these projections.
Global listed infrastructure underperformed in 2023 owing to rising interest rates and a shift away from defensive assets. Relative valuations are now at compelling levels. Infrastructure assets are expected to see earnings growth in 2024 and beyond, aided by structural growth drivers.
A company’s reputation and its ‘social license to operate’ (SLO) are two critical intangible assets. Our fifth Climate Change Whitepaper discusses how the increased sophistication of environmental NGOs, public concern and the reach of social media can result in potential challenges for some businesses. It analyses the various costs of reputational risk including the impacts on share price and provides investors with strategies to manage these risks.
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.
This paper asserts that macro towers will remain at the heart of a modern, mobile data communications network despite the continual development of new technologies.
Concentration in equity markets has reached unprecedented levels, particularly in the United States. A select few mega-cap stocks, colloquially referred to as the "Magnificent 7," now dominate market indices, reflecting a convergence of technological innovation, speculative enthusiasm, and the allure of generative AI.
In September 2023, I met more than 30 global listed infrastructure companies and stakeholders from the UK, Europe and China. The following travel diary summarises my impressions and findings from these meetings.
Last quarter I visited infrastructure companies in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. The trip included visits to ten corporate head offices and three site tours. This paper seeks to share some of the key findings from my meetings with Japanese passenger rail and utility companies.
We recently spent several weeks in the US visiting listed infrastructure management teams, regulators, politicians, industry associations and conducting asset tours. The following paper provides an overview of our findings.
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