Van Eyk welcomes BT offshore plans

Van Eyk ResearchsaysBT Funds Managementhas been slow to utilise its connections with US parent, Principal, but that the fund manager is at last making steps in the right direction in expanding its overseas reach.

Van Eyk met with BT chief executive Ian Martin who confirmed to the research house the latest efforts to become integrated more fully into the Principal global network. Van Eyk says Martin conceded that more effort should have been made to integrate the Australian operations into Principal’s international network.

Evidencing these new plans are BT chief investment officer Gary Symons and international equities Paul Durham who are currently in the US assessing the analytical resources in the Principal team. According to van Eyk, BT is expected to also have substantial team representatives in London and New York who will be backed up by existing Principal analysts.

Van Eyk says it has believed BT has been deficient in its analytical capabilities in the US market, but welcomes the new moves to leverage off the Principal connections. This should allay client fears of the possibility of a sell-off of BT by Principal, says van Eyk, who links the poor performance over the last few years to a slowness to utilise Principal’s resources.

“In a world where global connections and size have become increasingly important in funds management, BT [has] been [a] particularly slow learner,” the van Eyk report reads.

Van Eyk’s comments come only days after another research house — Assirt - stated that BT would expand its level of staff in overseas offices supplying research input into the group’s locally managed international portfolio’s.

At the time BT stated this was not a new step but rather an expansion in keeping with a similar move some years ago when staff moved to BT’s office in Singapore to provide input into the group’s Pacific Basin fund.