Stewart Brentnall is the Chief Investment Officer of Tcorp, the asset management arm of NSW. In this interview, we discuss the fund’s move towards a total portfolio approach, how TCorp views partnerships with fund managers and his thoughts on the Canadian Model.
Overview of podcast with Stewart Brentnall:
2:00 Getting started in investing.
2:40 My first boss, while I was on secondment to Clayton Utz, was Julie Bishop
5:30 Building a multi-manager platform at ANZ
6:00 TCorp mergers
6:45 Internalisation of asset management functions
7:30 Moving towards a total portfolio approach
8:30 Asset classes don’t describe very well how much risk they bring to a portfolio
11:00 Streamlining the portfolio and reducing the number of managers in it
12:00 Equities are at the centre of the investment process and every other asset is measured against the risk/return profile of equities
13:00 How were the changes received by the existing staff? Did you get any pushback?
15:00 Addressing agency risk
15:30 How do you look at strategic partnerships?
17:30 Thoughts on passive versus active as TCorp continues to grow.
19:00 Teaming up with Canadian pension funds
20:00 What are your thoughts on the Canadian Model? Will it still be successful in an environment where returns are lower and so cost will need to be managed more?
22:00 The governance around internalising is tricky
23:00 How is TCorp positioned in this crisis environment?
27:00 Role of technology
To read the transcription of this podcast, please click here.
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The [i3] Podcast is a conversation with some of the leading institutional investors around the world, discussing their philosophy towards investing, in particular towards portfolio construction and investment strategy. The [i3] podcast is available on iTunes, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher or your favourite podcast platform.