Ords bolsters asset management presence

Ord Minnett will move to further beef up its presence in the Australian asset management market by leveraging off its long-standing relationship with shareholder JPMorgan to launch a new global equities fund specifically aimed at the retail market.

Ord Minnett managing director, asset management and products, Walter Lewin said the launch of the Ord Minnett Global Dynamic Fund reflected the company’s desire to provide select investments and to move further into external distribution and meeting the needs of the dealer group and platform market.

“From an asset management point of view in Ords, we have been in the business a long time, but over the last two years we have increased the products we have available, and we are focusing on the retail market externally now as well as our existing internal clients.

“We have a considerable client base internally, but we also have an ambition to be a player in the dealer group and platform market,” Lewin said.

“We have always taken the view that we’ll only do select funds that fit retail investment portfolios and have a reason to exist,” he said. “And we think we’ve got a great yardstick on that because of our Ords advisers and clients.”

Lewin said Ord Minnett had been looking for the right international funds to bring to retail in Australia, and after discussions with JP Morgan and reviewing a number of funds from various managers he was confident the new Global Dynamic Fund was the right global equities fund for Australia.

“What Ord Minnett is trying to do is offer the select JPMorgan investment strategies that we feel make sense for the Australian retail market,” he said. “JPMorgan is one of the world’s leading active investment managers and the JPMorgan Global Dynamic Strategy has over $5 billion under management.”

Ord Minnett described the new fund as being style-driven based on a selection of the best growth and value shares globally, with JPMorgan’s investment process using disciplined share screens and fundamental research. The JPMorgan Global Dynamic Strategy has generated consistent outperformance over the MSCI World index of 5.4 per cent a year over the past five years.

Commenting on the underlying investment strategy, London-based client portfolio manager for JPMorgan Asset Management, Louise Henckel, told Money Management, “Global Dynamic is benchmark aware but not benchmark centric, if we don’t like a stock, we don’t own it”.