In Depth – Page 45
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Interviews
American half-century
f you are wondering why it took 50 years for American Century Investments to open its first offices outside the US, it is instructive to look at who owns the business. Among the partners, primary control is held by the cancer research group associated with the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in the firm’s home town of Kansas City. About eight years ago American Century’s founder, Jim Stowers, now an octagenarian cancer survivor, donated almost all of his wealth to establish the institute. Since 2000, 40% of the firm’s profits have been paid as an annual dividend to the institute – a total of more than $750m.
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Interviews
Hedge fund hermeneutics
Although pension funds and their consultants are weaning themselves off their obsession with three-year track records, few would choose to park $1.3bn with a brand new fund of hedge funds – even if its founding partners bring two decades of experience from hedge fund stalwarts like Olympia, Pioneer and Momentum.
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Features
Easy riders
Portfolios of minimum variance stocks appear to reproduce a true risk factor beta that can outperform cap-weighted benchmarks. Martin Steward asks why no-one uses them in the real world
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Features
Is credit due?
Corporate bond managers insist that active management is no luxury in their asset class. Martin Steward asks if they are just talking their book
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Interviews
From silos to solutions
BlackRock has been active in fiduciary management since 2005, when it purchased the internal asset management operation of the Philips pension fund in the Netherlands and was awarded a fiduciary mandate to manage the assets.
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Interviews
Bigger in Japan
On 30 July Sumitomo Trust and Banking Company, the second biggest money manager in Japan, with assets under management at ¥26trn (€192.3bn), bought Nikko Asset Management, Japan’s seventh largest, with just over ¥9trn. It was second only to BlackRock-BGI in terms of this year’s biggest asset management M&A deals and will create Japan’s new number one, and yet media coverage in Europe was curiously muted.
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Interviews
Multiplying the multi-boutique
As a giant among asset managers describing itself as “multi-boutique”, one might expect BNY Mellon Asset Management (BNYMAM) to be scouring this consolidating industry, chequebook in hand. The recent announcement that it will buy Insight Investment Management from Lloyds Banking Group for £235m (€273m) shows that it is indeed in the market
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Interviews
From silos to solutions
The announcement in mid-June that Barclays had accepted BlackRock’s offer for its asset management arm, Barclays Global Investors (BGI) – to be recommended to shareholders in August 2009 – set the media and industry analysts off on the challenging task of trying to find the pitfalls. All mergers present difficulties, particularly when they are on this scale, but it is difficult to imagine a better fit.
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Features
Mending the buck
Martin Steward asks how investors might analyse money market funds after last year’s shock to the system
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Features
The real carry trade
If you buy into the emerging-market growth and commodities stories, maritime investments could offer another way to diversify your exposure, writes Martin Steward
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Interviews
IAM what IAM
It’s been an eventful few years for fund of hedge funds International Asset Management (IAM).
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InterviewsThe institutional path
SAM was founded in 1995 as Sustainable Asset Management. In the wake of the current financial crisis and the appointment of Sander van Eijkern as CEO in January, new ventures are on the horizon for the Swiss-based investment manager.
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Interviews
Revolution for survival
Jan Straatman has chosen a quote from Charles Darwin as the motto for his plans to restructure €330bn Dutch investment management giant ING: “It is not the strongest of the species which survive, nor the most intelligent, but those most able to change.”
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Features
Greeks bearing gifts
Volatility is one of the best diversifiers money can buy, and yet few pension funds recognise it as an asset class. Martin Steward explores the possibilities
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InterviewsBig in Japan – ready for Europe?
Having been through its own painful credit crunch during the ‘lost decade’ of the 1990s, Japan entered the current global version with government, corporate and household debt at relatively healthy levels.
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InterviewsKeeping it real
Ask pension fund managers what are the risks that keep them awake at night, and they will probably start with longevity.Close behind will be interest rates and inflation.
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Features
Time to call a specialist?
The credit-market dislocation has opened up opportunities well beyond core corporate bonds. Martin Steward asks whether pension funds should get specialists onboard, or just loosen their existing bond mandates
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Features
Euro-zone challenges
The massive rise in debt issuance is posing problems for European government bond markets, finds Joseph Mariathasan
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FeaturesThe market challenge of insurance
Sarah Dudney outlines success factors critical for asset managers operating in the insurance industry
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