Lonsec wary of Perpetual ambition

Research group Lonsec’s scepticism as to the capacity of domestic fund managers to establish thriving global equity arms has prompted it to place Perpetual Trustees Australia’s global funds on hold after the group announced setting up an in-house team in Dublin last week.

Lonsec general manager research Grant Kennaway says the rating freeze has been fuelled by the previous experiences of Perpetual’s peers in similar initiatives, and follows the investment house announcing on Friday it would be severing ties with US-based fund manager Fidelity Investments.

BT, Perennial and Colonial First State have struggled to attract global mandates or retail funds under management Kennaway says, adding that Perpetual’s move has major implications for investors.

“It is a testing endeavour for any manager to develop a successful offshore investment team and compete against entrenched global players,” he says.

Perpetual has poached four key Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) staff, who resigned overnight to join Perpetual’s new Dublin-based subsidiary - Perpetual Global Equities (PGE).

“Whilst there are no immediate changes to the investment strategy or management, once the new Perpetual global business is operational early in 2005 there will be a significant change in investment style,” Kennaway says.

Kennaway says the PGE business unit is expected to mirror the investment style of BIAM.

BIAM is a globally focused managers whereas Fidelity’s business operates along regional lines with investment teams located in regional centres.