Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 567
-
Features
Absolute returns harder to find?
In theory, hedge funds are all about delivering absolute returns – finding the elusive alpha. Until now, it has been universally accepted that the objective of a hedge fund is to provide positive absolute returns over a medium-term investment horizon irrespective of market environment and traditional market performance. But in ...
-
Features
Independence is driving force
When Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) was on the brink of default in 1998, one area of its operations gave no cause for concern - its back office-processing infrastructure. This continued functioning smoothly, and ensured that no payments to creditors were missed and that it did not have to re-state its ...
-
Features
Alpha: looking in wrong place?
Institutional investors coping with a low-return environment have recently been pouring unprecedented amounts of capital into hedge funds. The stated motives for doing so vary, but are all rooted in the search for higher expected returns. Some point to the track records of hedge funds during the recent bear market ...
-
Features
Too good to be true?
During our research of the hedge fund results, we analysed the 35 hedge fund categories available in the HFR database (www.hedgefund-research.com). The HFR database is one of the largest of its kind and covers approximately 4,150 hedge funds and fund of funds. From this database the HFRI indices are derived. ...
-
Features
Core satellite thinking in orbit
Funds of hedge funds are now pension funds’ preferred route into hedge fund investing. Of the €1.2bn invested in hedge funds by Europe’s 50 largest pension funds, €920m is in the hands of funds of hedge funds, according to Boston-based research consultancy Cerulli Associates. One effect of this has been ...
-
Features
Fighting fund fraud
Recently, Frankfurt’s public prosecutor began a criminal investigation into a senior employee at Phoenix Kapitaldienst, a German hedge fund manager that has now been told by the financial services regulator (BaFin) to cease trading. The employee is alleged to have siphoned off E700m from the fund. And while those hardest ...
-
Features
Getting it right first time
Following the poor returns of the last bear market, institutional investors have recognised the need for diversification in their investment portfolios. Post-Myners, many pension funds are seeking to match their liabilities by investing in alternative asset classes such as hedge funds. The mainstreaming of an industry that has traditionally been ...
-
Features
Enemy at the gates
As institutional demand for hedge funds grows, not all providers will be able to meet the emerging standards for the industry, according to a recent report. Those firms that want to thrive in the maturing market will have to adopt new ways of doing business. Last year’s report, ‘Institutional Demand ...
-
Features
Crunch year for pension funds
It would be wrong to make hasty conclusions about the value added by alternative investment strategies. Hedge funds should be allowed to show their worth over time. Nonetheless, this year could prove to be a turning point. Consultants Wilshire Associates managing director Howard Yata has suggested that it is too ...
-
Features
Case for active style allocation
Although the existing literature seems to concur on the interest of hedge funds as valuable investment alternatives, there seem to be several shortcomings in current industry practice when it comes to fully capitalising on the advantages of including hedge funds in an investor’s asset allocation. So far, the only solution ...
-
Features
A match made in heaven
In the aftermath of the bursting of the internet bubble, pension funds were forced to cope with an extremely unfavourable environment. Stock markets were plunging and interest rates were falling to historically low levels. Pension funds in general, and European pension funds in particular, have therefore seen the gap between ...
-
Features
The 'undramatising' chairman
Sigbjørn Johnsen says that when he was approached to head a commission intended to coax a consensus on pension reform from Norway’s political parties he saw it as “quite a challenge”, sidestepping phrases like ‘poison chalice’ and ‘herding cats’. “During the 1990s there had been a number of reports on ...
-
Features
Looking after your family's financial health
The past five years have proved to be a bit of a learning curve for investors, who have been confronted with the true nature of the risk involved in investment management. High-net-worth families have been no exception and the process of wealth management has evolved on several fronts. Alex Scott, ...
-
Features
All-embracing reforms
Following the launch of his green paper on ageing, commissioner Spidla told reporters on 18 March that Europe’s falling birth rate and longer life expectancy is not just about older working populations and pension reform, but affects “almost every aspect of our lives”. Pension reform is not explicitly dealt with ...
-
Features
Lessons for Europe
In 1981 Chile adopted a new pension system that has set a controversial pattern around the world. Unlike traditional systems, benefits are financed by investment accounts owned by workers. Chileans are sensitive about the starting point of their system, under Pinochet. But they do not worry about whether their system ...
-
Features
ABS market forges ahead
Europe’s asset backed market enjoyed pretty good health in 2004 – fewer downgrades than upgrades, hardly any defaults, and narrowed spreads. And, says Denis Badalucco, manager of HSBC Asset Management’s Asset Backed Securities (ABS) funds, liquidity also improved over the course of the year. “For our money market asset backed ...
-
Features
Freeing up managers
Pension funds are increasingly considering investing in currency hedge funds instead of using a currency overlay programme. Emmanuel Acar, head of London Risk Management Advisory at Bank of America, says this is one of the trends emerging in the currency management sphere. “Pension funds are now considering allocating to currency ...
-
Features
Diversification key strategy
Starting anything with a clean slate has an obvious appeal. On this principle, many pension funds choose to do away with the risk of currency fluctuations within their overall portfolio before attempting, separately, to add value through active currency management. Dutch pension fund PGGM says that from an asset liability ...
-
Features
Europe following US example
There has been huge growth in the demand for currency management over the last two years, managers report. Institutional investors are seeking both to reduce the risk of foreign exchange fluctuations while at the same time making the most of the opportunities for profit. Currency can be managed through a ...
-
Features
Bandwagon begins to roll
Pension funds in Europe have been stepping up their use of external currency managers. Bill Muysken, global head of research at Mercer Investment Consulting in London, says there has been a rise in the number of pension funds seeking external currency managers. During 2004, he says, 28 of Mercer’s clients ...
