In Depth – Page 37
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Interviews
Building bridges
They do not come any more Australian than AMP Capital. Its parent company started life as a mutual insurer in Sydney in 1849, and is today headquartered in the city’s first skyscraper, which it financed, and which stands on the site of AMP co-founder and pastoralist Thomas Mort’s wool store. Its commanding views of the famous harbour are the backdrop to board and client meetings.
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Features
Cutting a tranche of yield
The current levels of default risk and the ability to tailor exposures to portfolio requirements make CLOs and CDOs potentially attractive for pension funds, writes Geoffrey Randells
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Features
The US Treasury’s New Year gift
The US Treasury brings to market its first new product in nearly 20 years. Stephanie Schwartz reports
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Features
From recycle to growth cycle
Brian Bollen asks whether a pick-up in corporate and economic activity can awake the loan market from a torpor of refinancing
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Features
Illiquid but not non-transparent
Cyril Demaria argues that private equity illiquidity need not prevent the creation of a model for vintage return prediction that can reduce the prudential capital costs of the asset class
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Interviews
Not corporate governance police
Poor governance may have been catapulted into the headlines in recent years, but to-date few asset managers in Europe have been trying to make money through activist strategies. One that does, as part of its range of products, is London’s RWC. In 2013, RWC’s assets under management grew from $5bn (€3.7bn) to $7.5bn, which its CEO Dan Mannix attributes to “a normalisation of opportunities within the equity markets” and a general improvement in investor sentiment.
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Interviews
Operating in the market shadows
Harald Espedal has a party to get to. It is October 2013 and he is in London to celebrate Skagen Funds’ twentieth birthday with the firm’s growing UK team and a host of colleagues from Stavanger in Norway.
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Features
Back to the future
Pension fund boards and their investment teams should form a new partnership to promote flexibility in strategy, argues Théodore Economou
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FeaturesEmerging consumer policies
While the bottom of the pyramid is served by microfinance, providing finance products for the growing educated middle class is increasingly important for some investment managers, finds Nina Röhrbein
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FeaturesInsecurities market?
Charlotte Adlung asks whether events such as the attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre reveal risks to Africa’s compelling economic, consumer and investment stories
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FeaturesMeeting in the middle
The pressure is growing for pension investors to begin divesting from fossil fuel companies, Nina Röhrbein finds
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InterviewsDrawing a virtuous circle
A number of prominent bank-owned asset managers have been put up for sale at various times since 2009 – a process that has not always been straightforward for the banks or the asset managers. Pioneer Investments’ proposed sale by its parent Unicredit was finally called off in April 2011, which allowed it to focus on a new set of strategic priorities.
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FeaturesRetaining interest
Torsten von Bartenwerffer points out that rising rates do not necessarily mean losses in fixed income, and argues for smarter long-only strategies rather than market-timing or long/short approaches
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Features
Interesting properties
Malie Conway considers European MBS the ‘happy medium’ between liquid REITs and illiquid direct real estate, offering low-volatility returns and floating rates
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Interviews
Low fashion, high durability
As Thornburg Investment Management’s fourth employee, Brian McMahon arrived in Santa Fe in 1984 around the same time as the firm acquired a second-hand fax machine from the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Walter Mondale.
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Features
Corporate bonds go electronic
Amid the ongoing debate about the best market structure for cash credit, Rupert Warmington draws attention to the rapid expansion of electronic trading
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Features
The search for yield
Managers believe that high-yield bonds still offer up plenty of opportunities, writes Maha Khan Phillips
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Features
Commanding heights
Jean-Pierre Couture makes the case for top-down investing in an era of ‘de-globalisation’
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FeaturesTime for an overhaul
With yields rising and pension schemes continuing to increase their allocation to bonds, Peter Ball asks how trustees can plug the deficit in their schemes
