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Quest Asset Partners is a finalist in the Separately Managed Accounts (SMA) Portfolio category at the Lonsec awards in May this year.

Fund management group Henderson Global Investors is in the final weeks of a merger that transforms the business into a true global player. Since demerging from AMP in 2003, Henderson has grown from a small no name investor into a recognised brand with a current capitalisation of $2.7 billion.

The New Year may have started quietly in Australia, but the pace has been frenetic in the USA. Only weeks into the new Trump administration there are signs that the new regime may experience a short honeymoon.

New CEO Frank Calabria has addressed the ongoing debt position at Origin with the proposed sale or spin off of the upstream exploration and production business.

Updater (ASX:UPD) is a New York based technology company that has developed a platform to help consumers move house. The Updater assists provides customers to forward mail, update subscriptions, connect utilities and complete other moving related tasks.

Small stocks delivered for our Quest portfolio during the August reporting season. Quest holdings in 9 separate stocks lifted more than 5% over the month to deliver a small positive return in August of 0.2% compared to the market which fell 1.6%.

The Quest Australian Equities Concentrated Portfolio delivered a 3.7% pre fees return in fiscal 2016 which was ahead of the market return of 0.8%.

Quest has expanded the choice of platforms for our Separately Managed Account by adding Macquarie SMA to our range. The platform list now includes JB Were, Mason Stevens, Powerwrap, Hub 24 and Macquarie.

One of the challenging issues in funds management is the discovery and processing of information. Portfolio managers and analysts are subject to enormous flows of information and one of the skills required to succeed in funds management is the ordering, processing and discarding of ideas. Our view is that a great idea is rarely unique for more than a day. The information advantage can be as short as a few minutes.

Plumbing manufacturer Reliance Worldwide (RWC) closed the first day of trading at $2.95 after the offer was priced at $2.50 by joint lead managers JP Morgan and Macquarie Bank in late April 2016. Quest participated in this IPO, one of the few we have been attracted to in this IPO season.