Global Investment Insights

Spotlight on Ilfryn Carstairs, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Chief Investment Officer, Värde Partners

“Recent economic events and market volatility signal that we are clearly in an unfolding global credit cycle. The issues in credit are now significant enough to drive the tighter linking of interactions across the market that make a cycle spread, in our experience, from one segment to another. This is the essence of a credit cycle; problems, when they occur in large enough parts of the market, create more problems. Credit standards tighten, availability goes down and costs go up, drawing more sectors of the market into stress.”

Ilfryn Carstairs is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Värde Partners, a leading global alternative investment firm specialising in credit and credit-related assets.

Ilfryn will share current views on the credit cycle and explain why we are in the midst of one of the richest environments for opportunistic credit investing. He will discuss how investors can pursue the best relative value across both public and private markets globally when he presents at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Private Credit Roundtable, taking place on Thursday, 4 May 2023 at The Residence - Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria.

To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan.kapetanovic@globalii.com.au.

Spotlight on David Ross, Managing Director and Head of Private Credit, Northleaf Capital

David leads the direction and development of Northleaf’s global private credit strategies and serves on its Executive Committee overseeing their broader private markets platform.

David will discuss the evolution of the private credit asset class, from an extension of the private equity asset class to an established and growing asset class within fixed income, and the key factors to achieve long term performance outcomes, at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Private Credit Roundtable, taking place on Thursday, 4 May 2023 at The Residence - Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria.

To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan.kapetanovic@globalii.com.au.

Spotlight on Joe Millward, Founding Partner, Epsilon Direct Lending

Joe is the Founding Partner of Epsilon Direct Lending, an Australian based non-bank corporate lender and private markets investment manager, providing capital to support growing middle market businesses in Australia and in New Zealand. Epsilon’s team have been active corporate lenders for over a decade, having closed >50 transactions and >AU$1.7 billion of middle market direct lending.

Joe will present on the opportunity in the Australian direct lending middle market in the context of its relative value compared with offshore markets, at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Private Credit Roundtable, taking place on Thursday, 4 May 2023 at The Residence - Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria.

To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan.kapetanovic@globalii.com.au.

Ben Lam promoted to Head of Equities at Colonial First State (CFS)

April 2023

GII congratulates Ben Lam on his promotion to Head of Equities at Colonial First State (CFS). CFS is one of the largest retail super funds in Australia with AU$145 billion in assets under management and a membership base of approximately 670,000.

Ben joined the Colonial First State FirstChoice Investments team in May 2016 and most recently held the role of Senior Investment Manager at CFS, with primary responsibility for undertaking research and providing advice in relation to manager selection and portfolio management of the FirstChoice Australian Share, Australian Small Companies, Australian Property Securities, Global Property Securities and Global Infrastructure Securities portfolios.

We wish Ben all the best in his new role and continued success to the team at CFS.

Spotlight on Heath Fuller, Senior Managing Director & Head of Capital Markets, Robeco - NXT Capital

Heath is a Senior Managing Director and Investment Committee member at NXT Capital, a leading U.S. middle market direct lending firm. He oversees capital market activities with an emphasis on structuring transactions, originating opportunities with direct lenders, and analysing market intelligence.

Heath will present on why now is a good time to deploy capital into the U.S. private debt market, at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Private Credit Roundtable, taking place on Thursday, 4 May 2023 at The Residence - Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria.

To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan.kapetanovic@globalii.com.au.

David Bluff to lead Future Fund's private equity investments

April 2023

GII congratulates David Bluff on his appointment as the Head of Private Equity at the Future Fund.

The Future Fund is Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, investing and managing assets of more than AU$250 billion for the benefit of future generations of Australians.

David joins from The Carlyle Group, where he was the country head for Australia, as Partner/Managing Director. He was with Carlyle for 13+ years and in that time he led and was actively involved in all of the transactions undertaken across Australia and New Zealand.

We wish David all the best in his new role and continued succes to the team at Future Fund.

Current job opportunities for executives and senior investment professionals across our industry

April 2023

View this month’s featured job vacancies and opportunities including roles at AustralianSuper, Victorian Funds Management Corporation, NGS Super, CBUS, Funds SA and Frontier Advisors.

If you would like us to promote a job vacancy at your organisation for executive and senior investment roles, please contact us.

Spotlight on James Kirby, Principal, President, Deerpath Capital

James co-founded Deerpath in 2007. In his role as Principal, he acts in a capacity akin to the chief investment officer. He sits on the investment committee alongside the other three partners in the business and together they review investment prosposals and assess their suitability for meeting Deerpath’s strict investment criteria in deploying capital in the US lower-middle direct lending market.

James will present on the developments across the US lower-middle direct lending market, at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Private Credit Roundtable, taking place on Thursday, 4 May 2023 at The Residence - Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria.

To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan.kapetanovic@globalii.com.au.

Ben Griffiths joins the Future Fund as Director, Equities

April 2023

GII congratulates Ben Griffiths on joining the Future Fund in the position of Director, Equities.

The Future Fund is Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, investing and managing assets of more than AU$250 billion for the benefit of future generations of Australians.

Immediately prior to this role, Ben was the Head of Equities in the Portfolio Delivery team at NSW TCorp (TCorp), where he played a key role in designing and constructing TCorp’s A$47 billion equity portfolio across developed and emerging markets.

We wish Ben all the best in his new role and continued success to the team at Future Fund.

Spotlight on Matthew Turner, Head of Senior Debt, Intermediate Capital Group (ICG)

Matthew is the Head of Senior Debt at ICG and in this role he is responsible for the Australian Senior Loan Fund, which has been build over the past 10 years and consists of a diversified portfolio of Private Debt assets. As market pioneers, Matthew and his team have witnessed the development and evolution of the Australian Private Debt market.

Matt will be presenting on the evolution of the Australian private debt market and how it is likely to play out in the current, uncertain economic environment, at Global Investment Institute’s upcoming Private Credit Roundtable, taking place on Thursday, 4 May 2023 at The Residence - Grand Hyatt Melbourne, Victoria.

To register your interest in attending, click here or for more information email zlatan.kapetanovic@globalii.com.au.

The Retirement Income Covenant and the role for Global Quality Value Strategy in portfolios

Nick Clay, Portfolio Manager - Global Quality Value Strategy, Redwheel

In this exclusive interview with Global Investment Institute (GII), Nick Clay, Portfolio Manager of the Redwheel Global Quality Value Strategy shares his insights on the key areas of focus for him in his dealings with his global client base around the role the Global Quality Value Strategy can play in investors’ portfolios, in times of uncertainty and volatility, and its fit for superannuation fund portfolios, including in the context of the Retirement Income Covenant which came into effect on 1 July 2022.

Superannuation focus: Can gold slice through the inflation and potential stagflation headwinds?

Global Investment Insights - World Gold Council

As inflation continues to persist and the risk of stagflation continues, what role can gold play in superannuation funds’ portfolios to heed off the associated headwinds?