In Depth – Page 43
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Features
Banks back in favour
Fund managers are overweight banking stocks for the first time since 2007. But Maha Khan Phillips finds that not everyone is convinced that now is the time to buy
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Interviews
Emerging markets, changing world
Julian Mayo, co-CIO at emerging markets specialist Charlemagne Capital, has a memory from the early 1990s that serves as a corrective to the idea of ‘de-coupling’.
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Features
AIFMD: the rush to regulate
With its mid-year implementation deadline looming, Giuseppe Rumi and Giorgio Tosetti update us on the state of play for the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive
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Features
Contagious junk?
Speculation that European downgrades could squeeze EM corporate bond issuers is overblown, finds Martin Steward
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FeaturesThe correlation myth
Patrick Burke d’Orey argues that factor analysis shows that correlations are not at all-time highs – and that even in 2008 there was wide dispersion in pair-wise factor correlations
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Features
Australia: gateway to Asia?
It is right on Asia’s doorstep, but James Dunn finds that outside the big resource names there is surprisingly little Asia exposure in Australia’s stock market
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Features
Don’t be surprised by inflation
Nicholas Johnson, Berdibek Ahmedov and Ronit Walny argue that now is the time to build a real asset bucket in diversified portfolios
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Features
The inflation trade-off
Hedging against unexpected inflation can be costly. But Karsten Jeske and Anjun Zhou argue that active management can shift the efficient frontier in investors’ favour While inflation and inflation volatility were relatively subdued until the late 1990s, inflation volatility has picked up again in the 2000s. Evidence shows us that more uncertainty about inflation lies ahead.
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Interviews
Enjoying a Renaissance
Renaissance Asset Managers (RAM) has had a great run since it was founded as part of Renaissance Group, the Moscow-based financial services firm, in 2003.
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Interviews
Focus and flexibility
One can tell from the name ‘Alternative Investment Group’ that this is a more venerable fund of hedge funds, pre-dating the post-dot-com stampede: it’s not exactly ‘Google-search optimised’.
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Features
Shaking up high yield
Considering the trend to combine loans and high-yield bonds in the same products, Martin Steward finds the sub-investment grade landscape changing and new opportunities becoming apparent – especially in senior secured
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Features
An equity substitute
David Newman argues that equities have a similar credit profile to high-yield bonds but offer less protection, worse returns and higher volatility. Add in low correlation, and there is a strong case for replacing some equity exposure with high yield
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FeaturesVolatility regimes and risk drivers
Using factor model to break down two similar-looking periods of declining implied volatility in Europe and the US, Rachael Smith uncovers surprising differences in the actual sources of risk
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Interviews
Boutique ambition
Natixis Asset Management (NAM) might be less well known than other firms in the Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM) empire, such as Boston’s Loomis Sayles or Chicago’s Harris Associates. But the Paris firm is by far the largest asset manager in its parent’s multi-affiliate structure in asset terms, in part thanks to its historic ties with France’s Caisse d’Epargne and Banque Populaire network, and its strong local roots.
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Features
Bolt-on growth
As a fast-track route to growth with a focus on efficiency gains, buy-and-build seems perfectly-suited to our low-growth world, writes Jennifer Bollen
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Features
On the road again
The convertible bond market finally woke up in September. But Martin Steward finds that there is a long way to go before portfolio managers are out of the woods
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FeaturesWhat makes a skilful portfolio manager?
Ignore the sales pitches, advises Rick Di Mascio. Successful managers simply get more decisions right than wrong, and make sure their hits make more money than their misses lose
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Interviews
Cutting through the noise
“There is almost universal agreement that the world needs long-term investors and, indeed, that short-termism is bad,” says Keith Skeoch, CEO of Standard Life Investments (SLI), addressing a room of European finance journalists at its Edinburgh offices. “And the reason short-termism is perceived as bad is that the charge sheet is long and serious.”
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Interviews
Institutional ambition
It probably wasn’t planned this way, but Four Capital Partners was set up by Derrick Dunne and ex-Schroders UK equities managers Tom Carroll, Ted Williams and Chris Rodgers on the precipice of the financial crisis. Established in 2006, its first UK equities fund was launched in April 2007, on the very day that New Century Financial went Chapter 11.
