Neuberger Berman plans further launches for AU retail market
Neuberger Berman plans to expand its presence in Australia with regional hires and further products for the Australian market.
In a conversation with Money Management, managing director Matthew Thompson said the firm was keen on expanding its presence in the intermediary space.
It launched two managed funds last July and August, the Strategic Income Trust and the Emerging Market Equity Select fund, which were now $7 million and $35 million respectively. These had since been rated by research providers and were available on the HUB24 and Netwealth platforms which, the firm said, was a key requirement for financial advisers to consider the funds.
While he said the asset growth was “on track” for a newly-launched fund, he admitted the lack of ratings combined with COVID-19 had slowed things down.
According to FE Analytics, within the Australian Core Strategies universe, the Strategic Income Trust had lost 3.3% since the start of the year to 30 June, 2020 versus returns of 3.1% by the global strategic bond sector while the Emerging Market Equity Select fund had lost 6.4% versus losses of 9.6% by the emerging market sector.
Going forward, Thompson said there were areas, including private equity, which the firm was considering for the Australian market.
“We want to pick products that resonate with the Australian market, we have had an institutional presence in Australia for 10 years but only launched an intermediary one to two years ago so we are being patient. We are taking a prudent and cautious method.
“With that in mind, we want to hire more distribution people in other states not just Sydney and Melbourne.”
He said the firm had a large presence in the private equity space which would be the next area of interest for the firm to bring to Australia. The firm’s private market capabilities were over US$69 billion ($95 billion) in the US.
“Our private equity capabilities are big in the US and we have the opportunity to bring that to Australia and think it would suit retail investors. We would use our existing capabilities and put them in a new structure for Australian investors.”
However, he said it was difficult for Australian platforms to access capital calls which were used for private equity vehicles so Neuberger Berman was looking for “a way around this” that would allow it to work in Australian markets.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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