Colonial First State wins $400m in after-tax mandates

Colonial First State Global Asset Management (CFSGAM) has picked up $400 million in 12 months for its Australian Equities tax-aware investment capability, with three industry funds recently appointing the team.

Head of CFSGAM’s Australian equities core team, Matthew Reynolds, said tax-aware investments offered super fund members clear advantages over pre-tax returns, especially for Australian equities.

Reynolds said CFSGAM’s investment approach was to treat tax as a transaction cost and to integrate franking credits and capital gains tax management into the investment decision.

“We believe actively monitoring trade parcels to assess the potential impact of trade decisions on franking credits is a more effective way to manage a tax-aware strategy than seeking to generate more franking than the market,” he said.

“We also seek to consider the impact of potential sales prior to implementing a trade, as it’s important to factor-in capital gains tax management.”

Reynolds said his team were seeing more super funds looking for tax-aware investment solutions as they sought to align fund manager performance with super member benefits.