James O’Leary heads KPMG Investment Consulting, supported by a team of senior executives with direct experience as investment principals in real asset classes. Mr O’Leary was previously the head of Colonial First State’s infrastructure, real estate and private equity businesses, with funds under management of over $22 billion.
“Direct investment is becoming increasingly attractive as it has the potential to enhance portfolio construction, improve investment control and reduce fees. However, the implementation of an effective direct investment strategy is time consuming and requires significant expertise and resources,” said Mr O’Leary.
“The primary driver of returns in the real asset classes is the terms of entry - both pricing and associated governance entitlements. Consequently, investors are increasingly focused on separating the role of investment selection from that of investment management. This means investors require appropriately skilled and independent support to consider the merits and risks of any given direct investment – this is the focus of our offering.”
KPMG Investment Consulting will support superannuation funds and their existing in-house investment teams in the formulation of direct investment strategies and the consideration of existing portfolio issues and exposures. The business will enhance the effectiveness of direct investment strategies by providing independent and comprehensive advice on the investment and governance risks associated with direct investments in an investment portfolio.
“There is a clear gap in the market for the provision of direct investment consulting support and advice. The current service providers to direct investors are either not sufficiently aligned to investors’ long-term objectives or do not have the required skill set to provide them with suitable investment advice,” said Mr O’Leary.
KPMG Investment Consulting combines experienced investment perspectives with the global strength of KPMG’s transactional and asset expertise and reach.
“KPMG is focused on developing new and innovative capabilities to meet the changing needs and demands of our clients,” said Gary Wingrove, Head of KPMG’s Advisory practice.
“We are well positioned to provide a high quality, tailored service to our superannuation clients. KPMG is ideally suited to providing investment consulting advice to investors given our global network of over 140,000 employees worldwide with on-the-ground experience in every market, and most relevantly, we are a leading assessor of investment risk globally through our financial due diligence, advisory, taxation and valuation practices.”
Clients will have the benefit of unconflicted advice, highly experienced focus on critical investment governance arrangements, and access to KPMG’s global market and asset experience and understanding to assist in the consideration of key investment risks.
“Investment governance is a priority area for superannuation funds. We will be focusing on reducing our clients’ risk profile, while enhancing the effectiveness of their investment process,” Mr O’Leary concluded.