Financial Times Mandate articles from April 2009

Financial Times Mandate archives from April 2009

Analysis: 'Business as usual' for ishares chief.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow New iShares joint chief executive officer Rory Tobin wants his ETF business to maintain the focus on becoming a standalone unit, despite that the identity of its new owner has still to be finalised. Barclays Global...

In brief.
April 1, 2009... Christopher Alderson has been appointed president and CEO of T.Rowe Price International (TRPI) following the retirement of David Warren. Mr Alderson, who has been with TRPI for 22 years, has led the firm's Global Emerging Markets equity...

Analysis: Market analysis - Europe.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Chris Oulton Over the past few years pension funds have moved increasingly into bonds, as the most suitable asset for liability-matching. The past six months have brought dramatic moves in bond prices as interest rates have been...

Analysis: Brazil attracts private equity from overseas.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson Several foreign private equity firms are opening offices in Brazil, according to ABVCAP, the country's private equity association. Luiz Eugenio Figueiredo, president of ABVCAP and investment management director...

Analysis: Market analysis - North America.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Alison Cratchley Investors in US equity funds experienced a disastrous final quarter of 2008, uniting fund managers in their pessimism on the outlook for the US economy. The median mainstream fund lost 22.3 per cent, bringing its...

Analysis: Market analysis - South America.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Stefan Herz and Ian Simmons It is not often that one feels pity for politicians. Latin America's leaders however do deserve at least some sympathy as their economies falter in the face of the global economic downturn. While...

Analysis: Risk management functions sidelined.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith Asset managers appear to be paying mere lip service to the importance of creating a risk management process that reports all the way to the top of their organisations. A global survey by SimCorp StrategyLab has...

Analysis: Market analysis - Asia Pacific.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Jerome Booth Asian central banks have, according to available data at time of writing, not yet sold down foreign currency reserves this year. For the best part of a decade central banks have intervened to keep regional exchange...

Comment: Leader - Is anything really going to change?
April 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith - Editor As FT Mandate marks its 10th anniversary at a time of deepening economic crisis and market turmoil, it is hard to avoid making the trite observation that the more things change the more they stay the same. ...

Comment: The Consulting Room - Reconsidering equities.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Robert Ross A year into the credit crunch investors are assessing the impact of the collapse in equity values, following the painful deleveraging from an extended period of easy credit, high debt and the accumulation of financial...

Comment: Regulation - The blame game in overdrive.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow When Paul Myners declared, almost a decade ago, pensions should push their consultants and money managers to work harder for their fees, and for trustees to get to grips with complex products through greater...

Comment: Economic recovery - Investors still running scared.
April 1, 2009... The chatter about the market reaching its bottom has gotten progressively louder in recent weeks, particularly with the Dow gaining over 1000 points in the last month for a 17.5 per cent gain. Home purchases in the US, frequently a...

Comment: Agenda - Seismic changes still to run their course.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Yuri Bender Ten years ago, as the first issue of FT Mandate rolled off the presses, a bunch of plucky Americans had started to dip their toes into a conservative UK institutional pensions industry still dominated by a Big Five of...

Comment: Soapbox - Learning from experience.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Robert Parker During the past ten years the asset management industry has had to deal with a repeated number of economic and market shocks which will define the future structure and profitability of the industry. During the...

Interviews: The chief - Standing firm.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow George Moller, Robeco Group's chief executive officer of five years is determined to ensure the Dutch fund manager stays on the front foot as it heads into a crucial second quarter. Though comforted by having the...

Interviews: Scheme spotlight - Keeping an 'aircraft carrier' on the right course.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson Aside from the weather, Alaskans have a pretty good deal. They pay no income or sales tax, and the government pays each resident (including infants) $2000 (EU1473) a year just for living there. The payment of this...

Strategies: Fixed income - Credit derivative explosion left markets reeling from fallout.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow The last ten years has seen fixed income transform into one of the most diverse and complex, though potentially unpredictable, asset classes there is in an investment portfolio. The process of shedding its 'plain...

Strategies: Hedge funds - The rise and fall of the hedge fund industry.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith The credit crunch has brought the rude realisation that hedge funds (most of them anyway) do not exactly triumph in adverse market conditions. Nevertheless, hedge funds can thank the impact of previous negative events...

Strategies: Equity management - Separating manager skill from market exposure.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Ceri Jones It was the year the euro was established, President Clinton was impeached and Apple released its first iBook, but more than anything 1999 was the year technology and media stocks soared, as internet mania took over the...

Strategies: Equity investing - Pension funds ditch equities as strategic goals change.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Paul Trickett The role of equities in pension fund investing has evolved substantially during the past few years and a much changed asset allocation picture has emerged. Indeed, Watson Wyatt's Global Pension Assets Study shows...

Strategies: Asset allocation - A glimpse at the next generation of strategies.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow On the fringes of last month's National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) Investment Conference, which often proves an important snapshot of UK pension fund sentiment, emerged a series of debates which left delegates...

Strategies: Indexing - ETFs thriving despite the global downturn.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith As Barclays stands to make a tidy GBP3bn (EU3.28bn) from the agreed sale of its highly successful iShares business to CVC Capital, the deal is a potent reminder of the rising popularity of exchange-traded funds. ...

Allocation: Exchange traded funds - ETF platform - Is cash becoming ETF king?
April 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow The recent flight to safety has impacted on all corners of the investment map, including the ETF market in Europe.New figures have revealed that cash and bond ETFs are reaping strong net inflows as investors moderate...

Performance: European global bonds - Fund performance overview - Victims of the times.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson For European global bond funds, the last three years were all over the map. The difference in performance in the top 25 funds according to research from Morningstar was a remarkable 81.06 per cent. Dexia's...

Technology: Stock exchanges - Syrian bourse plans to keep things simple.
April 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow Whether or not Barack Obama, the new US president, will lift the economic sanctions against Syria in place since 2004 and expanded by his predecessor in 2008 is neither here nor there for the deputy CEO of the Damascus...

Technology: Fund administration - Evolving to survive in a more complex world.(Company overview)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Kalpana Fitzpatrick The last 10 years have seen the asset servicing industry grow from strength to strength, but it has not been an easy decade. What once used to be a small, uncompetitive market, has now become a major business,...