Financial Times Mandate articles from April 2006

Financial Times Mandate archives from April 2006

From the Editor: Push pensions out of comfort zone.(Editorial)
April 1, 2006... Byline: Henry Smith Doing the rounds of investment conferences in the UK and sometimes in continental Europe usually reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day, in which a hapless Bill Murray wakes up every morning to find himself forced to...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - "Frightened" UK pension funds miss out on TAA.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Henry Smith Pension funds in the UK are overlooking opportunities to add extra return through tactical asset allocation (TAA) as they move towards specialist management. According to Paul Niven, head of asset allocation at F&C...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Alpha hunt must continue to stem US pension deficit.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Henry Smith Despite earning higher investment returns last year, US corporate and public pension funds will have to find more and better sources of alpha if they are to plug their funding gaps and meet future pension obligations....

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - US could follow Euro liability lead.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Paula Garrido Regulatory and accounting changes in the US are likely to result in an increased focus on liability management from institutional investors, following the steps of their European counterparts. The interest in...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Nasdaq draws roadmap for cost-effective trading.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Roger Aitken and Henry Smith Nasdaq has stolen a march on its arch-rival, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) by swooping to take a 14.99 per cent stake in the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The dramatic move, which happened just...

Asset Allocation: FTM Interview - Paul Griffiths - Framlington acquisition leads Axa IM to redouble UK focus.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Henry Smith The acquisition of UK retail fund manager, Framlington, by Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM) has presented the French-based firm with a welcome opportunity to tackle the performance problems affecting a number of its...

Asset Allocation: Scheme Spotlight - FRR launches SRI experiment.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Henry Smith Fears that the French state pensions reserve fund will fail to reach its target of E150bn by 2020 are played down by executive director Antoine de Salins. Professing a reluctance to discuss the issue at all, he...

Asset Allocation: The Consulting Room - A relationship based on trust.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Frits Bosch and Bart-Jan Wittenberg Dutch pension schemes are in a crucial stage of their existence. As a result of the new regulatory framework, many funds are actively seeking solutions within the existing configuration of their...

Comment: The Bender Agenda - French fund houses ready to join forces.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Yuri Bender Asset management used to be an afterthought in mergers between investment and retail banking groups. But it is increasingly becoming part of the equation. Currently, in the quieter moments of Parisian life, when there...

Asset Allocation: Portfolio Flows - Grab the euro bull by the horns.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Neil Mellor Euro bulls have become decidedly more self-assured in pushing the single currency higher following something of a stalemate between the single currency and the US dollar since early February. Euribor futures have fallen...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Europe - Awaiting promised Orange harvest.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Kevin Colglazier It is nearly a year and a half ago when the world watched as thousands of Ukrainians descended upon the capital's Independence Square dressed in orange. Outraged by the rigging of the presidential elections, the...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - North - US to play catch up with bumper 2006.(capital market of USA)
April 1, 2006... Byline: Ann Hall The US market has enjoyed its strongest first quarter returns since 1998. Can we expect this trend to continue? Over the past two years global equity markets have enjoyed bumper returns while the US has played Cinderella,...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - South America - Brazil commodities keep on growing.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Maarten-Jan Bakkum High commodity prices and the rapid integration of Brazil in the global economy continue to be a powerful combination for the Brazilian equity market. Strong domestic demand growth in China and an increasing...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Asia Pacific - The four catalysts for change in China.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Yang Liu After a strong rally in January, Chinese stocks remained firm in February. The MSCI China Free is up 19.44 per cent year-to-date. Investors have become more comfortable with the macro and micro picture of the Chinese...

Special Report: Collaterised Debt Obligations - CDOs explode after growing interest.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Christine Senior The market for collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) in Europe has expanded enormously. Lured by the prospect of increasing their yields in a low yielding market, investors are choosing ever more complex...

Sponsored Report: Collaterised Debt Obligations - Turning 'exotic' products into practical tools.
April 1, 2006... The credit derivative swaps (CDS) and collateralised debt obligations (CDO) market has reached a point where these products should no longer be viewed as exotic instruments. 'A tool for investment banks to make money' was historically how...

Strategy Selection: Enhanced Indexing - Finding a place in a portfolio.(enhanced index funds )
April 1, 2006... Byline: Gerry O'Kane They may be less sexy than at their peak two or three years ago, but enhanced index funds are still finding there is a healthy market among European and UK institutional investors. "To us, the market doesn't have...

Strategy Selection: Property - Building property portfolios through indirect exposure.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Paula Garrido Over the last two years, both the private and public real estate markets have experienced very significant growth as investors move into the asset class attracted by its performance and portfolio diversification...

Strategy Selection: Investment Business Models - Multi-boutique structures boost alpha possibilities.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Paula Garrido During the last decade, institutional investors' move away from traditional balanced mandates into specialist briefs has allowed specialist asset managers to gain market share. The word 'specialist' is now seen...

Special Report: Investment Banking Series - Investment Banks and Asset Management - Banks smell pensions blood.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Gerry O'Kane Over the past two years investment banks have been drawn closer to the warm glow of pension deficits and the sparking apoplectic panic of corporate finance directors examining their books under the pressure of FRS 17,...

Strategy Selection: Mandate Analysis - Demolishing the competition.(real estate investments)
April 1, 2006... Byline: Paula Garrido Property has become a well-established asset class within institutional investors' portfolios, boosting the growth of both the public and private real estate markets. Over the last 10 years, pension funds and...

Strategy Selection: Private Equity in China - Competition fierce as China opens up to private equity.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Henry Smith China is likely to offer the broadest range of private equity deal opportunities in Asia over the next few years, including government asset disposals, distressed debt and pre-IPO investments, according to US-based...

Advertising Feature: Taking full advantage of China's shares market.
April 1, 2006... China's dramatic economic growth has been a hot topic for investment professionals around the world. China's average growth rate in the past 20 years is around 9 per cent. If China Inc. issues an asset-backed security (ABS) on the back of its...

Strategy Selection: Benchmark.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Djuro Rnic Djuro Rnic writes: The FT Mandate Benchmark Online database is a unique, fully searchable database listing the latest mandate wins and losses in the asset management, custody and related third-party services in...

Strategy Selection: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading - Establishing a clear policy in the fight against emissions.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Paula Garrido As part of the global fight against climate change, companies operating in countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol are now committed to reducing their emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) linked to global...

Performance Overview: Swooping on fallen angels.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Paula Garrido The European high yield market has grown considerably over the last few years. The interest from investors in further diversifying the composition of their fixed income portfolios, and the potential for returns that...

Technology: IT Spend - Traders look to do it themselves.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Roger Aitken Vendors of IT systems for back, middle and front offices are guilty of "non- responsiveness" once they have made the sale, according to Charles Kennedy, managing director, IT, algorithmic & program trading group,...

Technology: FXfocus - Buying in tech expertise.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Giulio Pignatti-Morano A different type of activity has been taking place in the foreign exchange market recently. The various specialist organisations that offer electronic trading of FX have found themselves the focus of...

News Technology: STP advances fail to generate change.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Roger Aitken The biggest impediment to embracing straight-through processing (STP) is a natural tendency to resist change, according to Lee Cutrone of Omgeo, a provider of post-trade, pre-settlement software. This is despite...

Technology: Sponsored Article - Letter from Europe - Spreading cost of staying on the pulse.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Vincent Beaujeu-Dumontel Competition for business between asset managers is intensifying all the time. The emergence of open architecture models is broadening the range of third- party funds available to investors and fund houses...

Technology: Prime Brokerage - Fimat scales up with acquisition.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Roger Aitken These are interesting times for Patrice Blanc, chairman and chief executive officer of Fimat, a subsidiary of French banking giant Societe Generale. While the prime broker has a multi-product, multi-asset offering, it...

Support Services: Borsa Italiana - Looking to foreign climes.
April 1, 2006... Byline: Roger Aitken With the Italian stock exchange operator Borsa Italiana (BIt) poised to cash in on the rapid consolidation of Europe's stock exchanges by floating 30 per cent of its share capital on its own market this coming June,...

Support Services: Fund Administration - BNY knocks on Euro doors.(Bank of New York.)(Company overview)
April 1, 2006... Byline: Roger Aitken Despite not securing Unicredit's Securities Services business this February and losing out to Societe Generale, Tim Keaney, executive vice president and head of Europe at the Bank of New York (BNY) says that this...