Franklin Templeton was founded in 1947 in New York. Today it is headquartered in San Mateo, California. In October 1992, Franklin acquired Templeton, Galbraith & Hansberger Ltd., leading to the common name Franklin Templeton.

It is one of the largest US-listed investment managers with offices in 30 countries.
Franklin Templeton divides its business into six distinct investment management platforms. Its fixed income unit has become the largest division in recent times and one of the most successful.

Australian asset manager, Challenger, and US real estate investment management firm, Heitman Real Estate Securities LLC (whose sole member is Heitman LLC), run a joint venture to manage global property securities.

Founded in 1966, Heitman LLC is a multi-national investment management firm with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Warsaw, Tokyo and Moscow.

Challenger is one of Australia’s largest asset managers with considerable experience in managing property assets.

The Heitman/Challenger joint venture combines the global expertise of Heitman together with the Asia Pacific focus of Challenger to provide a cohesive approach to property investment with specialist investment managers in each regional property securities market.

iShares was founded in 2000 by Barclays Global Investors. Its focus is managing and distributing Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Over the past 10 years iShares has grown into one of the largest ETF providers in the world.

Barclay Global Investors is one of the largest managers in the world. It manages assets for institutional and individual investors across the globe.

Lazard Ltd is a New York Stock Exchange-listed, financial advisory and asset management firm. The company was established in 1848 as a merchant company, evolving later into a financial services business.

Lazard Asset Management is the asset management subsidiary of Lazard Ltd and has more than 235 investment personnel and operates in 10 countries.

Established in 1991 by Crispin Odey to focus on active investment management at a time when the industry was dominated by investment indices.

Odey Asset Management is based in London and emphasises preservation of capital and the generation of superior returns, rather than relative to index returns.

PIMCO was founded in Newport Beach, California, in 1971.

It is one of the world’s largest fixed income managers with over 1,200 employees and a presence in every major global bond market.

In 2000, PIMCO was acquired by Allianz SE, a large global financial services company based in Germany. PIMCO now operates as a separate and autonomous subsidiary of Allianz.

Platinum is a Sydney-based investment management firm, founded by Kerr Neilson and a group of investment professionals in 1994.

The firm specialises in investing in global shares and aims to achieve absolute returns for investors.

Platinum was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2007 with staff retaining around 70% of the equity in the firm. This serves to align its interests with the performance of the firm’s funds.

Resolution Capital is an independent investment manager specialising in Australian and Global listed real estate. The firm employs a high conviction, benchmark unaware approach to investing in global securitised real estate to maximise risk-adjusted returns for investors.

The Resolution Capital team has considerable experience in the Australian and Global property investment markets with diverse backgrounds ranging from property development, real estate valuations, capital transactions, investment banking, stock broking and economics.

This team is led by Andrew Parsons, who was awarded the Reuters Survey Australia and New Zealand Best Individual Fund Manager, for 1999 and 2000.

Resolution Capital is one of the largest investment managers of listed property securities in Australia.

Standard & Poor's is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. is a global information services provider for the finance, education, construction, health, energy, aerospace, defence, and broadcasting markets.

With approximately 8,500 employees, including wholly owned affiliates, located in 23 countries, Standard & Poor's has played a leading role for nearly 150 years in providing investors with independent benchmarks.

T Rowe Price was founded by Thomas Rowe Price, Jr., in 1937 in Baltimore, Maryland. Price believed that successful investors had the foresight to anticipate fundamental changes in economic trends, the patience to pursue long-term investment strategies, and the independence and self-confidence to take a stand.

Fundamental, bottom-up research defines its investment approach and drives investment management excellence. Its global research platform of 145* analysts gathers and shares insights across investment styles and strategies, allowing portfolio managers to quickly identify and pursue opportunities for clients.

Organisational stability and a long-term orientation contribute to a proven business approach designed to produce repeatable outperformance. A strong balance sheet and a diversified business model are evidence of its continuous focus on stability.

Generating sustainable, long-term investment results for clients takes precedence over short-term sales or asset growth. It has a singular focus on investment management and related services.

*11 portfolio managers/analysts, 108 research analysts, 24 associate research analysts and 2 specialty analysts as at 30 June 2009. 

Tweedy Browne’s origins are as a privately-owned New York brokerage firm that was founded in 1920.

The company evolved into an investment manager, expanding from internal funds management and brokerage only to offering its investment services more widely in 1968.

The investment philosophy is founded on its interaction with one of its earliest customers, Benjamin Graham – “the father of securities analysis” and the first proponent of ‘value’ investing.

Vianova was set up in 2005 by Michael Schneider after he had become frustrated with the index-centric approach of Australian institutional fixed interest managers.

It is a Melbourne-based boutique fund manager specialising in Australian fixed interest.
Vianova follows an absolute return approach rather than a relative return one.