Macquarie is considering adding United States exposure to its Step product following demand from financial planners.
“At this stage we’re looking at potentially adding US exposure,” Macquarie division director of distribution Xanthe Virtue told InvestorDaily.
Macquarie launched its Step series in November last year. It was created for investors, skittish as a result of volatile markets, who wanted the safety of cash but were ready for better returns. It is a deferred purchase agreement which provides indirect exposure to a basket of reference assets, including Australian shares.
Macquarie will look to start investing in US-based assets in the next series of Step in April.
Its research into the US market has been positive, Virtue said.
“At this stage we’re looking at giving broad US exposure via the S&P 500. And that’s a broad-based, very well-known and acceptable measure for exposure to US equity markets,” she said.
“Most of the interest in all our products in the past couple of years has been Australia. Once again, people understand the [S&P/ASX 200 index], so that’s been the key focus, but we’re just seeing that shift now to US [interest].”
Macquarie will continue developing other strategies and offerings for advisers in line with changes in market conditions.
“We are in a constant stage of development. We have some other ideas about some other things at the moment. We’re always reviewing our strategy and products and making sure they fit in with current market conditions,” she said.
