Advance

UBS - Global Equity Markets with Mark Steinert

noemail@advance.org — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:00:00 GMT

November 7, 2007 -- Talent Return founding partner UBS hosted a reception in New York with guest speaker Mark Steinert, Global Head of Equities Research at UBS.

Mark spoke about the tale of two countries, Australia and the US, and where each fits into the global equity markets. The two countries are similar in terms of relative performance of economies and underlying assets and there are two themes impacting both: strong emerging economies including Brazil, Russia, India and China decoupling from the US and market volatility.

In the US, Mark suggested that the ongoing transfer of accumulated wealth to emerging economies is occurring through the depreciating dollar, ongoing conspicuous consumption and a pro-democracy position as it relates to military spending. Those are themes that probably won’t change anytime soon. Mark predicts that economic growth will probably more than halve, the US dollar will stay weak, and there’s a 50 % chance that the country will enter a recession.

In addition, the US sub prime real estate market is a mess and the US housing market is in a recession. The housing market is likely to stay in that state for at least the next twelve months or so.

When comparing the US to Australia, Mark made some interesting observations. Australia is an efficient way to get exposure to the growth and emerging economies in Asia. The country is rich in resources, has healthy levels of migration and population growth and the vast superannuation savings has created an interesting dynamic; Australia now has no net government debt. It is the fourth largest pension market in the world, recently surpassing $1.1 trillion. As a net exporter of capital, Australia is in a unique fiscal and monetary position.

In addition, the all ordinaries is up 18% so far this year (even though the S & P is down 3 %) and GPD growth is running at 6%. At 4.2%, unemployment is at a 33 year low, housing prices are growing at double digits again and Australia has environment of strong business investment opportunities.

Globally, leading investment themes include infrastructure & utilities, basic materials, agricultural commodities and climate change.

For more from Mark Steinert, listen to the podcast

About UBS

With a presence in all major financial centres around the world, UBS is one of the world's leading financial firms. 80,000 people in 50 countries combine to make UBS a leading global wealth manager, top-tier investment banking and securities firm, and one of the largest global asset managers. In Switzerland, UBS is also the market leader in retail and commercial banking. In Australasia, UBS has operated in the financial market for over 70 years, having grown from a private stockbroking business to a leading financial services firm with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. UBS employs more than 1,600 people in Australia, and is a market leader across its three business groups of Investment Banking, Wealth Management, and Global Asset Management.

16-Nov-07 1:00 PM

Former Hitwise CEO Andrew Walsh speaks at Advance Victorians Abroad Launch

noemail@advance.org — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:00:00 GMT

Former CEO of Hitwise, Andrew Walsh, recently spoke about being a leading Victorian Ambassador at the launch of the Advance Victorians Abroad network in the USA.

Hitwise was founded in February 1997 by two Australians – Adrian Giles and Andrew Barlow – as Australasia’s first Search marketing and consulting company. Andrew Walsh was the CEO of the online intelligence firm from June 2000 until September 2007.

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. It provides its clients with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers. Hitwise pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs, Hitwise anonymously gathers consumer data on online usage which it packages up into a syndicated market research product to sell to over 1400 companies to inform their online marketing strategy.

Under Andrew's leadership Hitwise raised US$20M in venture funding, launched operations in six countries across Asia Pacific, Europe and North America, grew the customer base to over 1,400 enterprises, and grew revenues from US$0.3M to US$50M. In April 2007, Hitwise completed a successful trade sale to Experian for US$260M.

Following the acquisition and the successful integration of Hitwise into the Experian organization, Andrew has recently resigned from his role to spend time with his family and to focus on investing in other growth companies.

Andrew has taken on a role as a Venture Partner with Insight Venture Partners, a former investor in Hitwise. Insight is a New York based private equity and venture capital firm focused on the global software and Internet industries with capital of approximately US$3Bn. Prior to Hitwise, Andrew was Chief Operating Officer of Australian listed Internet company Sausage Software Ltd from 1996-1999 and prior to that was a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Listen to a Podcast of Andrew's Event Speech

13-Nov-07 10:00 AM

Australia - Powerhouse of Investment

noemail@advance.org — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:00:00 GMT

Wednesday October 10, 2007 -- An event hosted by Invest Australia drew close to one hundred Advance financial services members and their American colleagues to listen to four leading Australian and American financial services experts discuss the state of the funds management and alternative assets sector in Australia.

Gary Johnston, Head of Invest Australia, Financial Services touted Australia’s 17th year of uninterrupted growth and an economy growing at 3.5 %, a high rate by OECD standards. Although Australia has a reputation for being a huge mine site, and as Australians we’ve grown up with the notion that prosperity rides on the sheep’s back, with an annual growth rate of 4.5-4.7%, the financial services sector is almost as large as agriculture and mining combined.

In summarizing Australia’s recent rapid economical growth, Gary quoted some impressive statistics: Australia’s growth by GDP ranks 15 in the world; it is 7th in the world in terms of mergers & acquisitions; it ranks 3rd in securitization; and its stock market ranked number 8 in the world. Those statistics are indicators of the depth, liquidity and sophistication of Australia’s financial markets.

Australia’s funds management and alternative assets sector has seen monumental growth over the past couple of years. Australia now has a GDP of over US$1 trillion, market capitalization on the Australian Securities Exchange of more than $1 trillion and an investment funds asset pool of over $1 trillion (making it the fourth largest in the world). The sophistication and internationalisation of the asset management sector is Australia is further supported with 17 of the 20 leading global fund managers having a presence in Australia as well as eight of the ten top custodians also active in the market.

Kim Ivey, Chairman of Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), Australia talked about the reasons that the Australian hedge funds industry is growing quite rapidly. The openness of managers and investors to new ideas makes Australia attractive to outside investors, as does the large superannuation market actively looking to diversify the 9% superannuation guarantee levee that they are receiving each year. Funds are putting more and more emphasis on alpha generation and alpha sources.

The other advantage is that Australia has a regulatory regime that puts hedge funds on the same playing field as other managers. Australian hedge funds are regulated by the equivalent of the SEC. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) licenses and insists on hedge funds being on the same compliance standards as other financial services sectors.

AIMA’s chapter in Australia has more than 70 members and is probably one of the most active chapters of AIMA around the world. AIMA operates in 47 countries, and has more than 1500 members. One of AIMA’s roles is to engage in dialogue with regulators including ASIC, APRA and the reserve bank. In Australia, 80% of all managers are represented within AIMA.

Ron Insana, Managing Director of Insana Capital, recently took a trip to Australia with his colleagues and they were taken with more than just the gorgeous scenery and geography.

Although Australia is quite different culturally, they found it to be compatible with the US in terms of finance and the degree of sophistication with which financial services are handled in Australia. They concluded that Australia is comparable to New York, London and other financial capitals of the world and they immediately felt at home there.

Ron and his colleagues were warmly greeted and immediately accepted and they got the sense that everyone reading from the same page of the “alternative investments” hand book. They found that Australia had a similar point of view, similar approach and similar long to term commitment to alpha generation as the US. The Australian market is interested in more than performance alone; it also values access, capacity, information, insight. Performance was mentioned last.

The nature of the financial services industry means that a premium is placed on performance. But in Australia, the “relationship” was put at the forefront--an aspect that is missing from many markets. Maintaining dialogue once you partner with an institution or take on investors is extremely important; it’s the philosophical underpinning of the business. US and Australian financial services philosophies are similar. They focus on how to manage money, how to reach return goals and how to improve transparency and governance.

According to Ron, the only challenge with investing in Australia is the 22 hour plane ride. It’s the only thing that stands in the way of frequent back and forth trips. Apart from travel time, Insana Capital sees only upsides in a country growing as rapidly as Australia, a country that has a philosophy that’s conducive to growing long terms relationships that fulfill the needs of investors.

Colin Tate, Executive Director of Conexus Financial, recently hosted the inaugural Absolute Returns Funds conference, presented by Investment & Technology and endorsed by the Alternative Investment Management Association (Australian chapter). The conference attracted 227 delegates to Melbourne, the Australian city where 65% of money is held institutionally.

Australia has 310 large superannuation funds that are licensed through APRA. It also has fifty other institutional investors, approximately 120 master funds (primarily retail-coursed super investors), approximately fifty traditional multi-managers (super and non-super), 25 absolute return fund-of-funds and ten major asset consulting groups.

In addition, the Future Fund is $140 billion that will be invested by the Federal Government. The money, which was raised by surpluses and selling off assets, will be used to fund future liabilities of Federal Government employees and won’t be drawn down until 2020. It sparks a new impetus for large funds to invest further offshore and increase their investment in alternatives.

The session concluded with questions from the audience, followed by an opportunity for guests to speak one-on-one with the presenters.

Listen to podcasts from the event:

1_Advance Welcome - Diana Pizzari
2_Invest Australia Introductions - Debra Goundrey
3_Gary Johnston - Head of Invest Australia, Financial Services
4_Kim Ivery - Chairman of AIMA
5_Ron Insana - Managing Director, Insana Capital
6_Colin Tate - Executive Director, Conexus Financial
7_Questions & Answers

22-Oct-07 5:00 PM

Tim Flannery: The Weather Makers

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:00:00 GMT

Advance members in London marked World Environment Day on the 5 June 2007 at a special reception for Professor Tim Flannery, writer-scientist and Australian of the Year 2007. More than 150 Advance members and friends gathered in the Great Hall at King’s College London and clearly appreciated Tim’s lucid and informative brief on global climate change – an issue that is now at the forefront of Australian public debate.

Tim adeptly painted a thought provoking and multi-faceted scenario, blending scientific elements with political, economic and moral aspects before opening the floor for questions and discussion.

Members responded enthusiastically to this invitation and the ensuing dialogue covered a multitude of issues including the significance of population growth and consumption patterns, in-generational and development equity, options for policy responses (emissions reduction targets, pollution taxing, historical carbon debt, carbon trading schemes etc), technological options (improving industry processes, new generation technologies, decarbonising the grid, offset schemes such as tropical tree plantations). A podcast of the presentation and of the Q&A will be posted on the website shortly.

Tim’s presentation drew on his new book The Weather Makers, which along with Country, The Eternal Frontier and Throwim Leg Way was released in Penguin paperback in the

to mark Work Environment Day. Advance would like to acknowledge the generous sponsorship from The Hunter Hall Group, Australia’s largest ethical investment funds management company, and the partnership of the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, Kings College London on the night.

Photos: Naresh Verlander

Listen to podcasts of the entire event:

1_Introduction by Ian_Henderson
2_Introduction by Kate Parker, Advance
3_Presentation by Tim Flannery
4_Questions & Answers

6-Jun-07 7:00 AM

The Australian Expat - the Luckiest Person on Earth

noemail@advance.org — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:00:00 GMT

Advance partner Specialist Mortgage and Australasian Tax Services [SMATS] hosted The Australian Expat - the Luckiest Person on Earth seminar across three states of the US during May. The presenter was Steve Douglas, co founder and Managing Director of Australasian Taxation Services [ATS] and Chairman of the SMATS Group. The seminars commenced in San Francisco, followed by Washington DC and the final destination was New York, with two seminars held in New York City due to popular demand.

Steve outlined why the Australian Expatriate is indeed “The Luckiest Person on Earth”: increased earning power overseas, building contacts that you meet abroad, global business opportunities, the possibility of new trade of goods or services when you return to Australia and the ability return whenever you want. However, gaining control of your financial life can be a somewhat difficult and daunting task for most of us. Steve discussed how important it is to obtain the knowledge you need so that you can take control of your circumstances and be able to make the right financial decisions for you.

There are now almost a million Australians around the globe, making an impact on business, environment, life sciences, technology, sports, creative art, media and entertainment, just to name a few of the industries. While working overseas and being able to enjoy the many benefits as an expat, it is important not to lose sight of the financial improvements that can be made to your life. When the day arises to return back to Australia, being more financially secure, owning your home and reducing the impact of taxation on your life are all within your control.

When leaving Australia to work overseas, Steve highlighted the following key considerations that should be taken into account:

· Determine whether you remain a resident or become a non-resident for Australian tax purposes. Financial institutions and companies need to be notified of your non-residency status for interest and dividend purposes respectively.

· The current law provides for some assets to be deemed as sold on the date of departure, which can create a tax liability. Real estate is not affected by this rule. Most investment assets (except property) become free of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) whilst overseas, if tax has been paid up to the date of change in residence.

· Decisions about superannuation should be considered. In most cases, it is best to leave your superannuation intact for your eventual return. There is no major advantage in making contributions whilst overseas, as there is no tax deduction available.

· The Family Home remains free of CGT for 6 years even if it is rented out. Beyond the six years if you have not returned to Australia, the property may become subject to CGT on a pro-rata basis.

· Any HECS debt at the time of departure will continue to be due as long as you are earning money and filing a tax return in Australia.

Commence your time abroad by knowing your time lines as an expat as this will assist with how aggressive you may need to be in your savings or investment strategy. Saving power is the single most important aspect of gaining control of your financial future. Whilst away, the key points to remember are: save sensibly, set real targets, control lifestyle spending and be wary of Tax Schemes.

Your salary income will be taxed in the country you are living in and each place will have its own rules. Make sure you get good “local” advice to protect you from any tax issues. From an Australian perspective, you are only taxed on Australian sourced income, which is property for most people.

It is common for many expats to aggressively reduce debt as their first priority. The order of repayment needs to be considered carefully to ensure that non tax-deductible loans are kept to a minimum while you maximize your tax effective borrowings.

Cash deposits, Australian shares and property are effective saving strategies for most expats whilst overseas. Steve argues that Australian property has demonstrated itself as the best tax planning tool whilst overseas, as it is the only taxable activity that allows you to negative gear and it also forces savings. When living abroad other activities are not taxable in Australia, as you are not able to claim your interest costs in Australia whilst overseas and therefore cannot accumulate tax credits. Tax credits can go on indefinitely until such time as you need them to offset other future taxable transactions. Steve highly recommends borrowing to finance a considerable proportion of the investment property as it reduces your tax and will also improve your return. Refer to www.aussieproperty.com or www.smats.net websites for further details and to create your own calculations at no cost.

Steve emphasized that you should act now about buying property while living overseas, especially as property prices only continue to rise. It is a good idea to buy your “dream home”. But treat it as an investment property until you actually return to Australia and then when it is your family home pay off as much of the loan as possible. A full GST refund is available for Australian landlords living out of Australia from the 1^st July 2000 to the 31^st March 2005.

For non-residents, virtually all public company shares trading whilst overseas are free of tax and therefore no CGT will apply. This does not extend to private companies which remain taxable. Any other assets acquired whilst overseas such as non-Australian property or antiques will also become taxable in Australia once you return as a tax resident.

It is generally accepted that a spread of investment types is usually the best practice. And it is important to always seek professional advice with planning your financial future.

Steve’s recommendations when you return to Australia are: value all assets, review your tax losses (in the form of tax credits available), pay cash for your “dream home”, assess the need to retain negative gearing, determine what to do with any foreign superannuation and pension funds and investigate the use of any Australian tax structures that may offer advantages in terms of controlling income and CGT.

A very, very special thanks to Steve Douglas for his enthusiastic and entertaining presentations about this important topic for all Australians working abroad.

Listen to a complete Podcast of the Event:

SMATS_Part1.mp3    6148.788 KB (6148788 bytes)
SMATS_Part2.mp3    8879.315 KB (8879315 bytes)
SMATS_Part3.mp3    7269.251 KB (7269251 bytes)
SMATS_QandA.mp3    6024.797 KB (6024797 bytes)

1-Jun-07 10:00 AM

Michael Roux Round Table: Climate Change & Economic Inequality

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 20:00:00 GMT

The Advance Public and Charitable sector was fortunate to have Mr Michael Roux, who was designated by the World Economic Forum as their representative in Australia, speak on the pressing issues of climate change and the growing economic divide between rich and poor.

The roundtable discussion focused on the big issues of geopolitical change and social and political changes that Australia and the world faces now that global governments have reached a consensus that climate change is a fact.

Under the Chairmanship of Michael Roux, the Australian Davos Connection Business Leaders Forum had been held in Canberra the previous week where visiting UK climate change economist Nicholas Stern had made a presentation. The Forum issued a statement urging “aggressive action” to abate greenhouse emission. During the roundtable discussion Michael indicated that he was also in favor of the government providing a regulatory framework and binding target for 2020 as well as a longer-term aspirational target for 2050.

Michael recommended that all those interested in the science of climate change and the direct affects on Australia read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report and the book “The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change, A Guide to the Debate” by Andrew Dessleer.

He commented that Climate Change was the number one item on the Australian agenda at the moment. A growing amount of CEO’s were agreeing that the primary reasons that businesses needs to act are “moral and ethical” indicating an important shift in business culture on the issue of sustainability.

Michael had encouraging news of action already taken by large Australian corporations such as ANZ and AGL, but in general, at all levels, government, business and local there was a long way to go in the education process.

Suggested reading:
“Climate Change: An Australian Guide to Science and Potential Impacts", edited by Barrie Pittock and published by the Australian Greenhouse Office
"Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change", Editor in Chief Hans Joachim Schellnhuber; Cambridge University Press.

Listen to Podcasts of the Event Speeches:

1. Introduction - Ros Coffey
2. Speech - Michael Roux
3. Q&A Session: Part 1, Part 2, Part3
4. Conclusion & Thank You - Sally Paridis

3-Apr-07 3:00 PM