Ausbil, a $15 billion Australian investment manager, expects the next few years to be a tough environment for investors. “We’re entering a period of relatively low growth as we try to put the inflation genie back in the bottle,” says its veteran chief investment officer, Paul Xiradis.

While it has been relatively easy for investors to earn a return on capital from the sharemarket over the past decade or so, leading to the popularity of low-cost passive index funds, Xiradis says investors now need to be pickier when it comes to selecting what goes in their portfolios.