In Depth – Page 44
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FeaturesGo with the flows
Dividends really do pay off in emerging markets. Martin Steward asks why, and what the theories tell us about how far investors should tilt towards higher yields.
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Features
If the euro breaks up
Declan O’Sullivan and Lindsay Trapp outline some of the operational challenges that fund managers could face in the event of a break-up of the single currency
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Interviews
Life on planet TOBAM
Quantitative asset managers aren’t particularly noted for prioritising ESG matters.
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Features
Who turned out the lights?
Dark liquidity, which started as a way to hide big trades,now mostly offers liquidity in bitty, small packages. But Martin Steward finds signs that the pendulum is swinging back again
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Features
Speed is good
Richard Olsen argues that, far from slowing down, transaction volumes need to increase by a factor of thousands, and that pension funds should benefit from its uncorrelated alpha
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Features
Lost horizons
The growing gap between trading and investing is changing the face of equity markets, argues Per Lovén
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Features
World Bank rates green bonds
Nina Röhrbein looks at instruments that aim to combine solid SRI credentials with precious yield and a high standard of transparency and stability
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Interviews
Holding hedge funds to account
Bond yields sit at historic lows, growth is sparse and equities aren’t cheap. The result: a search for yield in credit assets and for alpha in liquid alternative investments.
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Features
Toxic assets, or toxic prices?
Charlotte Moore finds that the anticipated flow of bank assets is more likely to be a trickle – thanks to the very regulation that was supposed to open the floodgates
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Features
Over-funded, over 2008… and over here
US players are set to rule distressed Europe, writes Jennifer Bollen, but local players could offer crucial cultural advantages
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Unconventional wisdom
The search for yield is leading investors to hunt down illiquidity premia. Florian de Sigy and Benjamin Keefe make the case for secondary hedge fund interests
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Interviews
The implementation game
Russell’s recent move to Seattle from its historic location in Tacoma, Washington, just a few miles to the south, had the inevitable effect of pleasing urbanite employees happy to work and live in the bigger city and inconveniencing others who liked the old panoramic view over Commencement Bay and who faced a longer commute or higher real estate prices.
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Interviews
Practising what it preaches
As one of the world’s leading mezzanine and credit managers, Intermediate Capital Group spends every waking hour analysing, interrogating – and worrying over – the way companies manage their balance sheets. So it should come as no surprise that the firm is pretty handy at managing its own.
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Features
Boarding time approaches
For liquid investors with an eye on the medium term, investing in the maritime industry could be just the ticket, argues Marcel C. Saucy
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Features
Restless continent
Africa is set for a busy year of elections – and it has already experienced an old-fashioned coup. Charlotte Adlung assesses the political risks behind the investment opportunities
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Features
Smooth operators
The Swiss are taking pains to make their banks as risk-free as possible to ensure client loyalty, finds Iain Morse
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Interviews
De-leveraging, beautiful and beastly
Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha is famed as the world’s largest hedge fund, earning $13.8bn for investors in 2011 alone. But today, over coffee in a luxury London hotel, the focus for Bob Prince, co-chief investment officer of the Connecticut-based firm, is on a beta strategy called ‘risk parity’.
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Interviews
On avoiding hostages to fortune
There is no disputing Northern Trust’s powerhouse status in global custody and asset servicing in Europe. In the UK alone, a big custody contract was renewed by the London Borough of Hillingdon’s pension scheme in 2012, and, along with several similar renewals, it added €19.5bn in custody assets for 13 new clients during 2011, including major names such as the Lothian Pension Fund, the Lancashire County Council Pension Scheme and the Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London (SAUL). Transition management mandates were won from the likes of the Northumberland County Council and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea pension funds. Losses – such as the East Riding Pension Fund custody mandate that went to State Street – were rare exceptions in the effort to remain a go-to service provider.
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Features
Private assets on public markets
Listed private equity struggles to drum up interest even from private investors. Anthony Harrington asks, does it have any role to play in institutional portfolios?
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Features
Small is beautiful
Smaller companies make up the vast majority of the economy, are better-aligned with shareholders, more entrepreneurial – and not necessarily young and inexperienced. No wonder they both outperform and diversify large-caps, writes Nick Hamilton
