All articles by Martin Steward – Page 9
-
Special Report
Rich diversity
The bewildering variety of multi-asset funds can make them difficult to compare. But Martin Steward thinks that 2011 has revealed some useful patterns
-
Features
The good, the bad and the average
New analysis from Merrill Lynch indicates that hedge funds have never been so closely correlated with equities as they have in the past three years. It initiated another of those periodic waves of comment that pension funds are wasting their time and money going to hedge funds for “uncorrelated returns”.
-
Interviews
Strategic agility
Nordic private equity house CapMan does not make things easy on itself. Its mission statement: “To be the best-performing European private equity firm”.
-
NewsUMR Corem adds Africa to BRIC fund
FRANCE – UMR to allow African equity investments through new agreement with London’s Silk Invest.
-
NewsMartin Steward: Why can't Germany sell its bonds?
In its worst auction of the euro era, Germany tries and fails to sell €6bn worth of Bunds.
-
NewsHermes boutique launches long/short equity fund of funds
BT Pension Scheme-owned fund of hedge funds manager launches with $550m from European institution.
-
Asset Class Reports
Global Equities: An information edge
Few still believe that equity markets are efficient. But no-one thinks they are that inefficient, either. Martin Steward speaks to four asset managers who believe they have a proprietary information edge over the run-of-the-mill research process. Two exploit the wisdom of individuals; and two the wisdom of crowds
-
Country Report
The Nordic Region: ‘Luckily, we don’t have Solvency II’
Martin Steward spoke to pension insurer Varma about how it manages its solvency levels and the impact Solvency II-style rules would have
-
Special Report
Currency: The real thing?
Using emerging market currencies to exploit the ‘Balassa-Samuelson’ hypothesis is a seductive idea, writes Martin Steward. But it might not work in a new world of ‘inflation tolerance’
-
Interviews
Clear signals in the fog
When IPE first spoke with Ian Heslop about the post-crisis refinements that Old Mutual Asset Managers (OMAM) had made to its quantitative equity models, it was June of 2011. The sun was shining – literally, and (for quants) metaphorically, too.
-
Asset Class Reports
Global Equities: Beta made better
Martin Steward asks why some investors are treating long/short equity as an ‘equity replacement’ – and what practical challenges face those who do so
-
Features
A tricky rebalancing act
Last month I attended Lazard Asset Management’s annual investment dinner, where the guest speaker was Peter Mandelson. Lord Mandelson spent eight years as UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and European Commissioner for Trade, so I considered my questions carefully.
-
NewsThe 'Occupy' protests: We are the 99% – but also the 10%
Martin Steward explores some of the movement's contradictions and ironies.
-
NewsBlueBay responds to EM corporate debt demand with fund launches
Aims to launch EM HY Corporates fund in response to reverse enquiries from European institutions.
-
NewsTwo-thirds of buyout enquiries fail, none get best value says Aviva
Head of DB risk noted that volatility meant deals failed to benefit from best market price.
-
Special Report
Germany: Investing in investors
Martin Steward asked Michael Klimek about his company’s innovative co-operation model in investment management
-
Special Report
Germany: Lone wolf
Martin Steward meets a manager offering an unusual combination of small-cap and absolute-return option strategies
-
Asset Class Reports
Sovereign Bonds: Over-priced, over-exposed…
…over my dead body? Despite other options, Martin Steward finds pension funds struggling to let go of core government bonds
-
Features
Martin Steward: Trigger unhappy
When does a tactical loosening of a strategy become a panic? And when does panic start to undermine the strategy itself? If your strategy is liability-driven investing (LDI), you might well ask. It wasn’t long ago that plummeting yields were trumpeted as the vindication of LDI. At the end of 2009, celebrating the sixth anniversary of the pioneering Friends Provident Pension Scheme/Merrill Lynch transaction, Redington observed that UK 30-year real yields had fallen 126bps in that time. Around the same time Lane Clark and Peacock compared the 10% loss on the average FTSE100 pension scheme’s assets with the 3% gain on Friends Provident’s during 2008.
-
Interviews
Focus and flexibility
Few can claim to have been investing in emerging markets for 130 years. But Martin Currie & Co was helping to finance the North American railroads in the 1880s, when the US occupied the spot that China occupies today. That pioneering spirit lived on; it made its first Japanese investments in the 1960s, opened an office and a fund in China in 1997, and rolled out its first hedge fund – long/short Japan – in 2000. A new strategy partnership with Singapore’s APS Asset Management looks set to be a leading independent A-share active equity business.
