BT/Advance manager reshuffle complete

BT Financial Group has completed its post-merger fund manager reshuffle, announcing changes to its manager line-up for the Australian equities, property and fixed interest sectors.

The group has been working on aligning BT’s and Advance’s multi-manager funds following Westpac’s acquisition of St George Bank.

The winners in BT’s new manager line-up for Australian equities are Alleron, Schroders, Ausbil Dexia, BTIM, Northcape and Advance’s Small Caps Multi-Blend (Northcape, Contango, Celeste).

The property winners are European Investors, Perennial and CBRE. The new fixed interest manager line-up consists of Colonial First State and Perennial for Australian fixed interest and Franklin Templeton, Standish Mellon, Wellington for international fixed interest.

The group has also made changes to its strategic asset allocation.

Patrick Farrell is head of BT’s Advance Investment Solutions team. Farrell said the alignment of BT and Advance’s manager line-up and adjustments to strategic asset allocation had been a 12-month process, during which his team had sought to identify the best opportunities to take advantage of the market’s recovery phase, describing the current environment as a “active manager’s paradise”. Now is the time for stock picking and fundamental analysis of companies, rather than relying on macro themes, Farrell said. Farrell expects investment markets to be reasonably buoyant in coming months but with high volatility.

Farrell said the group had had to terminate a number of high quality manager mandates in their effort to avoid duplication of capabilities across the funds.

The group made changes to the underlying investment manager line-up in the Australian smaller companies and international sectors late last year. The combined group’s international equities managers are AQR, MFS, Trilogy, Tradewinds, Lazard and Schroders.