Solaris wins mandate from Mercer Investments

Solaris Investment Management has won a mandate from Mercer Investments Australia, becoming one of the managers of an Australian shares strategy.

Mercer's Australian Shares Fund for Tax Exempt Investors now has Ausbil Investment Management, Plato Investment Management, Macquarie Investment Management and Solaris as investment managers.

WaveStone Capital was replaced by Solaris on July 7. Solaris is a fundamental, style-agnostic, active Australian equities fund manager with around $8 billion in funds under management.

"We are responsible for establishing, implementing and monitoring the fund's investment objective and strategy," Mercer said in a fund update, adding as part of this process it regularly reviews the appointed investment managers.

The actively managed, multi-manager fund caters to tax-exempt entities, such as charities, endowments, and retirement phase superannuation, that can reclaim franking credits.

The fund seeks to outperform its benchmark by utilising tax-effective strategies and employing a diverse mix of investment managers across sectors.

The vast majority of the portfolio is invested in Australian shares, with a minor allocation to cash and property.

Incepted in May 2013, the fund is managed by Shannon Reilly.

Also from July 7, the buy and sell spreads went from 0.16% respectively to 0.18%.

This month, Principal Asset Management became the sole fund manager overseeing the Mercer Global Listed Property Fund. Resolution Capital via its Global Property Fund, were dropped from the lineup

The fund manager line-up across Australian equities and small-caps funds also saw a shakeup following an investment review, which retained some incumbents and awarded fresh mandates at the same time.

For the Mercer Australian Shares Fund, the trimmed bench came down to Ausbil, Greencape, Pendal, Plato and First Sentier Group's quantitative equities arm RQI Investors.

The new roster for the Mercer Australian Small Companies Fund now has only Longwave Capital Partners and First Sentier the investment managers.