Source Towers Watson

Australia’s allocation to equities (50 percent) is the highest amongst the top seven pension markets.  Its allocation to ‘Other’ assets (including property and alternatives) is the third highest at 23 percent, beaten by Switzerland at 28 percent and US at 25 percent.

Globally, pension funds have increased their allocations to ‘Other’ asset classes from 6 percent in 1999 to 20 percent in 2011.

Highlights at http://www.towerswatson.com/research/6267

The alternatives group within the team will be headed by Suzanne Tavill.  ipac CIO Jeff Rogers will remain responsible for the ipac, Axa and Tynan Mackenzie portfolios, while AMP Capital’s investment director, Sean Henaghan, remains responsible for the AMP Capital multi-manager portfolios, according to InvestorDaily.

The proposed segregation would involve strict physical and electronic separation between ancillary business units such as consulting and funds management services and the research business.

A key conflict of interest issue for research report providers is whether providers should accept payment from product issuers to produce research about the issuerʼs own products. ASIC is seeking feedback on this subject.

The initiative by ASIC is to improve confidence in the independence and quality of research reports.

Pricing in Facebook started at 80c!

Groups like Aviateglobal contend that we are looking at a new “Digital Age”, driven by the social network revolution. Consider this; AT&T’s mobile data traffic has increased 80 times from 2006 to 2010. US online display ad spending will increase 10 times to $15 billion by 2014. US digital music sales are set to increase 5 times to $20 billion by 2015. Facebook will have 1 billion users by 2012 averaging one hour per day online. There are currently 2 billion internet users and 5.25 billion mobile phone users! This growth will continue to drive revenues for companies like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

There have been a lot of reports of a tech bubble forming. In fact, we hear of a lot of bubbles. It seems everybody loves the bubble story mainly because of events in the last decade or so, making investors more cautious. However, unlike 2000, many 2011 pre IPO tech companies are profitable. Aviateglobal reports that Facebook, Zynga and Groupon have in excess of $1 billion in revenues and are profitable. The Nasdaq Composite index PE ratio hit 200 during the height of the bubble. Today Nasdaq trades at 17x PE.

The Facebook stats are staggering. 3 million links shared every hour, 14 million messages, and 31 million comments. Facebook users install 7.3 billion apps per year which is higher than iTunes. There are 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to integrate and deploy Facebook mobile products. 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day! Source: Aviateglobal.

I am intrigued about this space, mainly because I like my technology. I’m in the growth camp because I don’t see the 2000 parallels. I also hope that, unlike previous offshore VC and Private Equity offerings, Australian investors will get an opportunity to participate.

All the best

Damien Hatfield

…your best source of news, analysis and comment on hedge funds and alternative investments with a particular emphasis on Australia.

Our objective is to be the hub of Australian alternative investment and hedge funds knowledge and this new blog will help us do an even better job of keeping you informed and up to date with the latest news and developments.

We will, of course continue to provide our existing research and advisory on hedge funds and produce The “Australian Hedge” newsletter. We also compile the hedge fund survey which is published monthly in Investment Magazine.

We welcome your comments and feedback and would love to hear from you about the kind of information and analysis about hedge funds and alternative investments that you’d like to see on this blog.

We’re setting up a new blog on the site so that we can keep you updated even better about news and events in the world of hedge funds.

Bear with us for a short while as we set things up.

Thanks and look forward to this new chapter in the Triple A Partners project.

Damien Hatfield