CFS global property funds reassigned S&P rating
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) bumped Colonial First State’s (CFS’s) Global Property Securities funds from ‘on hold’ status to a three-star rating. High staff turnover led the research house to place the funds on hold in April when the head of global property securities, John Snowden, left the team.
S&P revised the rating following the promotion of senior portfolio manager Andrew Nicholas to top spot, noting that he was the funds team’s third manager in less than three years.
S&P fund services analyst Nathan Bode said they will be “looking for improved team stability in the future”, noting that further turnover in staff is likely to reduce S&P’s “conviction in the manager’s ability to select and retain key investment staff”.
“S&P considers CFS’s intention to appoint another Hong Kong-based analyst to focus on Asian-listed property securities, and to augment the two-person Europe/UK team with a new appointment, as important commitments to the capability — given the small size of the investment team and the disparate nature of the Asian and European property securities markets,” Bode said.
S&P said “a competitive advantage of the capability is the investment team’s access to the CFS equities, credit and infrastructure investment teams”. CFS’s listed property team also benefits from a strategic joint venture with Colliers International, which gives them access to “additional data and insights not available to some of the other rated managers”.
Recommended for you
Net cash flow on AMP’s platforms saw a substantial jump in the last quarter to $740 million, while its new digital advice offering boosted flows to superannuation and investment.
Insignia Financial has provided an update on the status of its private equity bidders as an initial six-week due diligence period comes to an end.
A judge has detailed how individuals lent as much as $1.1 million each to former financial adviser Anthony Del Vecchio, only learning when they contacted his employer that nothing had ever been invested.
Having rejected the possibility of an IPO, Mason Stevens’ CEO details why the wealth platform went down the PE route and how it intends to accelerate its growth ambitions in financial advice.
