In Depth – Page 43
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Interviews
Across the Gulf… and into the world
Limestone Asset Management launched its first fund, the New Europe Socially Responsible fund, in July 2008. Great timing: it was down 47% by December. But, that was 2.6 percentage points better than its benchmark, the Stoxx EU Enlarged Total Market index. And it made quite a comeback: when it ended 2009 up 83.1%, it left the index trailing by 42 percentage points – outperformance which it has built on since.
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Features
Arab Spring premium
Matthew Craig finds political upheaval in the MENA region generating volatility, opportunity and a new appreciation of risk
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Interviews
Accent on EM capability
Rudolf Apenbrink, HSBC Global Asset Management’s new EMEA CEO, outlined his firm’s strategy to Liam Kennedy following the integration of its Halbis and Sinopia brands
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Interviews
‘Risk is everything to us’
Asset managers’ products rarely surprise anyone. You’re an equities specialist? You’ll have US, European, UK, emerging markets funds, maybe Japan. Fixed income? I’ll choose from your treasuries, gilts and Eurozone products, investment grade and high yield, maybe local currency emerging markets. There might even be some convertibles tucked away somewhere.
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Features
X marks the spot
The hinterland between investment grade and high yield delivers an intriguing risk profile. But Martin Steward also finds that profile changing
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Interviews
Five years on
When Peter Wilby begins our conversation by remarking on Stone Harbor Investment Partners’ imminent fifth birthday, it is as if, stepping back, he suddenly realises what a thrill ride it has been.
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Features
Call off the funeral
Since the dotcom bust investors have endured a long period of headlines announcing the ‘Death of Venture Capital’. So why are practitioners telling Martin Steward to expect a new lease of life?
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Interviews
Breaking the bonds
Last month’s Strategically Speaking looked at how the dynamics of ageing, pension fund decumulation and tighter capital adequacy had influenced Schroders’ transformation from UK equities investor to global multi-asset manager.
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Features
Still at the station
Investors cursing themselves for missing the private equity secondaries train in 2009 can still get onboard, finds Martin Steward
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Interviews
Consolidating and concentrating
There has been a lot of change at Finasta Asset Management over the last two years. In 2009 parent company Finasta Group was sold by Lithuanian heavyweight Invalda to Bank Snoras, which had its own asset management outfit. This division was merged with Finasta Asset Management at the beginning of 2010, creating a rather odd-looking entity that was ripe for ‘synergies’.
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Interviews
Positioned for the new era in pensions
There are some clear long-term trends in pension asset management in Europe. Collective is giving way to individual provision. Defined benefit (DB) schemes are closing, crystalising liabilities and deficits, and implementing LDI programmes. This, together with accounting and capital adequacy standards and the decumulation phase of an ageing demographic, is pushing funds into fixed income. Where growth assets are still required, investors look beyond domestic markets because growth is expected to come from emerging economies.
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Features
Russian bank roulette
Shares in the bigger Russian banks are spiking on the belief of further consolidation and privatisation in the sector, writes Richard Hemming
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Interviews
Latin translation
“We have a saying in Spain,” says BBVA’s head of global asset management Luisa Gómez Bravo. “‘No vendas la piel del oso antes de haberlo cazado’.” Don’t sell the bearskin until you’ve hunted the bear. The proverb comes in response to the question of how the €140bn asset management unit of one of the biggest global banking brands remains so little-known among Europe’s institutional investors.
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Interviews
Winton’s global equity strategy
The West London offices of Winton Capital Management, best known for the diversified managed futures programme that has helped it grow into one of Europe’s biggest hedge funds, feel more like a university campus than an HQ of an asset management firm.
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Features
Get converted
The convex payoff of convertible bonds is well-suited to these uncertain times. But Martin Steward asks how easy – or desirable – it is to maintain optimal convexity
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Interviews
Bridges to somewhere
Mark Weisdorf knows a thing or two about how and why pension funds invest in infrastructure assets. Before joining JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) to set up its infrastructure investments group in 2006 he developed the real estate, private equity and infrastructure strategies for the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s CA$130bn (€92bn) portfolio, experience that led to his founding Mark Weisdorf Associates, a consultancy dedicated to advising institutional investors on their allocations to these asset classes.
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Interviews
The lion that’s finding its courage
The nightmare for any fund management firm is losing key managers whose clients follow them out of the door. It can tear apart a firm’s credibility, leading to further fund outflows and a further loss of credibility – a ‘death spiral’ that can demolish once mighty firms.
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Features
Cashflow kings
Any long-term investor should be a dividend investor, notes Lynn Strongin Dodds. But the rules of the game are changing
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Interviews
Facing forward, facing outward
Janus was the Roman god of doorways, and by extension of beginnings and endings. Double-faced, he looked both forward and backward, which is why he lent his name to the month of January. Janus Capital Group also takes its name from this god, but rather than facing forward and backward, ...
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Features
Barbarians at the gate
Gold may be a good hedge against an investment portfolio’s fiat currency exposures. But, Martin Steward asks, does it matter that some investors may be holding it for very different reasons?
