Investment Strategies – Page 17
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Features
One year later
The Tohoku earthquake of March 2011 was one of the most devastating natural disasters of recent times. Martin Steward asks if it has changed the way investors look at their Japanese equity portfolios
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Asset Class Reports
European Equities: The middle way
Successful risk-taking in European equities during 2011 was more nuanced than it first appears, finds Martin Steward
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Asset Class Reports
European Equities: A stockpickers’ environment…
… if you can wait a decade for active risk to pay off. Joseph Mariathasan finds managers enjoying rich pickings for the long term, by taking account of – but also looking through – the dominant macro themes
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Asset Class Reports
European Equities: Two different routes to risk
How should you be positioned at the inflection point of one of the strangest economic cycles in history? Martin Steward finds the consistent performers rotating into pro-cyclical stocks in both top-down and bottom-up strategies
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Special Report
Sovereign debt in sights of ESG ratings
Nina Röhrbein finds out how the sovereign debt crisis is affecting countries’ ESG rating
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Features
Keiretsu culture
Japan’s corporate governance culture has been moving, albeit slowly, towards Western models. But Nina Röhrbein finds that the Olympus scandal could lead to some push-back
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Interviews
On an ambitious journey
The name ‘AXA’ was chosen in the early 1980s, so the story goes, because it can be easily and uniformly pronounced in any language, and, as far as anyone knows, it also doesn’t mean anything rude anywhere around the world. But slick branding can’t make you good at everything, of course.
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Features
The real safe haven?
High yield is priced so keenly it would take a euro-zone break-up to really threaten investors, finds Anthony Harrington
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Asset Class Reports
Small & Mid-Caps: The small-cap dilemma
Small-caps promise so much as an asset class. But Joseph Mariathasan outlines just how difficult it can be to create a viable business out of managing them
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Special Report
The evolution of corporate reporting
Sustainability reporting has yet to establish its presence but integrated reporting is trying to gain a foothold within the environmental, social and governance (ESG) arena. Nina Röhrbein reports
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Features
Changed landscape
Iain Morse outlines the effect impending regulations will have on the custody industry and defined benefit pension funds
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Asset Class Reports
Small & Mid-Caps: Bulls and bears square up
Being on the defensive has paid in 2011, writes Martin Steward. But the US is a confusingly mixed prospect for the coming year
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Features
One step forward, two steps back
Given the problems in Europe, distressed debt would appear to be all the rage, writes Joel Kranc. But waiting out events might prove to be even more lucrative
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Features
Back to the real economy
Government and bank debt is the problem, not the solution, writes Christine Johnson. If you want safety, follow the money – to large corporates
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Interviews
Alternatives – with pensions DNA
Sometimes a company’s best investments aren’t in businesses or financial markets. When Jack Coates took over management of the pension plan for US forest products firm Weyerhaeuser in 1985, he was returning to full-time work after the company let him pursue a PhD while working part-time in his international treasury position. That investment was to pay off handsomely. His research led him to understand how alternative investments could be relevant to the challenge he saw before the Weyerhaeuser pension plan, which was under-funded and needed to generate higher returns without incurring too much downside volatility.
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Asset Class Reports
Small & Mid-Caps: The 800-pound gorilla
UK exposure – or lack of it – has been decisive in European small and mid-caps. But Martin Steward finds that managers have also had to contend with a difficult ‘risk-on, risk-off’ environment
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Asset Class Reports
Emerging Market Equities: Tide of history
Emerging markets, and their trade relationships with one another and the rest of the world, are changing. Traditional investment frameworks are struggling to remain relevant, writes Joseph Mariathasan
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Asset Class Reports
Emerging Market Equities: The evolution of fundamentals
Exposure to global smaller companies can capture diversification by market capitalisation, but also by developed and emerging market exposure, writes Nick Hamilton
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Asset Class Reports
Emerging Market Equities: Rooting for acorns
Somerset Capital finds a nice selection of tomorrow’s mighty oaks and quality local businesses among emerging small and mid-caps, writes Martin Steward
