All Briefing articles
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FeaturesUS high yield bonds punch out of a corner
US high yield has come a long way from its murky beginnings with the very high yielding bonds of so called ‘fallen angels’, and Drexel Burnham Lambert’s Michael Milken offering bonds newly issued by corporates with sub-investment grade ratings for the first time in the 1980s, properly introducing the world to high yield bond investing.
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FeaturesNAV finance takes hold as a niche form of private credit
Private equity investments are by their nature illiquid, which is why PE general partners (GPs) raising a new fund only call on the committed capital when it needs to be deployed in a new investment – and that may be up to a few years after the fund closes.
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FeaturesSecondary markets and innovation boost private equity liquidity
Liquidity has reduced significantly in global private capital markets. Whilst private equity-backed IPOs are up this year, overall exit value is down by 66% and there is currently a large backlog of unsold assets, of which 40% are four years or older. The cumulative sum of unsold assets sits at $3.2trn (€2.9trn), according to Bain. Recent data from Preqin shows that capital called has exceeded capital distributed by $1.57trn since 2018, highlighting the lack of free capital in private markets.
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FeaturesCyber catastrophe bonds make a debut as insurers offload risk
Cyber catastrophe bonds may be the new kid on the insurance-linked securities (ILS) block, but they have been talked about for years. The jury is out, though, as to whether they will follow the same trajectory as their natural cat bond peers. While some analysts believe they have the potential to go mainstream, others cite concerns over modelling and lack of diversification.
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FeaturesHow the EU's pay transparency directive affects pension sponsors
Pay transparency is looking set to be the employment hot topic of at least the next few years and reflects an ongoing global conversation around addressing equal pay. The latest figures in the EU put the gender pay gap at around 12.7% and the gender pension gap at in excess of 30%, with very little movement over the last few years. Greater transparency over pay is the route being adopted in a growing number of countries as the silver bullet to accelerate progress.
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FeaturesCorporate transition plans need to spell out net-zero dependencies
Corporate climate transition plans are gaining momentum globally. Essentially, these are reports about how a company plans to achieve emission reduction targets, but the idea is that the company will have engaged in strategic thinking and planning to produce such a plan, rather than just churn out more disclosures.
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FeaturesT+1 settlement rules pose challenges for fund managers
A global move to compress settlement cycles – that is, the time between when a transaction is agreed and executed and when the transaction is completed and the securities and cash are exchanged – is underway. While the aim is to deliver lowered risk and cost savings, investors and market participants face challenges due to the increasingly interconnected nature of financial markets.
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FeaturesUK creates social factors template for pension investors
Environmental and governance risks receive much attention, but UK and other European institutional investors have focused less on social factors and their complexities.
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FeaturesPrivate credit secondaries come of age
Since the secondaries market came into existence, private equity has been the dominant asset class, but the tide is turning. It is finally time for private equity’s more youthful counterpart, private credit, to receive more of our attention. The private credit secondaries market borrows various elements from its older sibling, including best practices and deal structures, and it is now demanding the spotlight as awareness of the asset class increases.
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FeaturesInvestors are paying for hedge funds' reluctance to use hurdle rates
Although two years have now passed since the US Federal Reserve started rapidly hiking interest rates, the likelihood that your hedge fund manager will have a ‘hurdle rate’ – a minimum rate of return before performance fees kick in – has not changed. Only a quarter of hedge funds, by our count, have such a threshold in place and the practice does not yet show signs of becoming more widespread, even though the risk-free rate has now exceeded 4% for well over a year.
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FeaturesAn inflection point for India bonds
The impending inclusion of Indian government bonds (IGBs) in JP Morgan’s widely tracked $240bn (€220bn) Govern ment Bond Index-Emerging Markets (GBI-EM) index is seen as a milestone. However, while some asset managers hope it is the beginning of a more open investment culture, others are more circumspect.
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FeaturesSecuritised credit keeps on shining
For a market with a difficult past, some could even say an image-problem, securitised credit has been performing remarkably well in recent years.
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FeaturesA bumper year for convertible bond issuance
The convertible bond market ended 2023 on a strong note with its main index – the Refinitiv Global Focus – returning 6% in the fourth quarter. The optimism has continued into 2024 on the back of reasonable valuations, historically low equity volatility and better opportunites.
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FeaturesMiFID II reforms: Bye bye unbundling?
A key part of the 2018 MiFID II package, the requirement to unbundle research from execution costs shook up the European asset management industry and changed the relationship between investment managers and their clients.
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Features
Insurance-linked securities wind brings good news for investors
In the two decades prior to 2022, the negative correlation between stock and treasury bond market returns has been a key driver of institutional investor portfolio construction. Fixed income allocations provided investors significant relief during equity market downturns and increased expected risk-adjusted returns for the popular 60/40 stock/bond portfolio.
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FeaturesNet zero’s bond index problem
The fixed-income space has not been short of sustainability innovations over the years.
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FeaturesPrivate debt managers bullish despite uncertainty
When the global financial crisis wreaked havoc across the banking sector, private credit emerged as a potential winner.
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FeaturesAvoided emissions: measuring carbon that didn’t enter the atmosphere
A few years ago, a footwear producer’s claim that it was reducing carbon emissions in the economy because its customers walked rather than took the car provoked amusement among investment managers. It wanted to prove its product was healthier and greener than competing transport modes by claiming credit for emissions prevented from petrol use. This autumn, assessments of the role played by individual low-carbon products in replacing fossil fuels are again under scrutiny in the finance sector.
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FeaturesMarket volatility: low risk does not mean ‘no risk’
Efforts to produce an accurate estimate of market risk can sometimes turn into a pessimist’s paradise, leading to a paradox. If the outcome of the estimation looks positive, investors might feel that they should not count on it, and if it looks negative, the real outcome will probably be worse than expected. From that perspective, the third quarter of this year was a very unusual one, quantitatively speaking. Not only did both risk and return decline simultaneously – a rare event – but investor sentiment also turned negative during the quarter, ending at its lowest level since the March banking crisis.
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FeaturesRegulators set sight on private market fund valuations
The current waves of rising inflation and interest rates, economic uncertainty and market volatility may eventually be remembered as just a temporary setback for managers of unlisted assets. But the regulatory initiatives announced in recent months, following pressure from investors and the public, could bring about deeper changes to the buoyant private markets industry.
