Financial Times Mandate articles from December 2005

Financial Times Mandate archives from December 2005

From the Editor: Time to tap Eastern promise.(Editorial)
December 1, 2005... Byline: Henry Smith Go east for equities is the end-of-year advice from asset managers who are not wildly enthusiastic about the prospects for decent returns from US and European stock markets. Despite global equities having risen by...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Hedge funds grow up under pressure from competition.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Paula Garrido Hedge fund managers, once preoccupied only with performance, are now just as concerned about the impact that infrastructure, and risk management issues can have on their business. This changing attitude among...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Property products soar as appetite grows.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Paula Garrido Investors' growing appetite for real estate is being translated into more investment vehicles being launched in the market. Demand for greater liquidity and more transparent investment products has resulted in more...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Long-term positions go wanting.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Paula Garrido Short-term measurement of fund managers' performance is resulting in fear of taking longer investment positions. As a result, potential longer-term investment opportunities are being left unexplored. Despite the...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Iceland creates space for small- and mid-cap funds.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Roger Aitken The Icelandic Stock Exchange (Icex) has launched a new market catering for mid- and small-caps. Known as isec, the segment is broadly based on the London Stock Exchange's AIM. "The starting point for the model is...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Time is running out for LSE as Macquarie prepares move.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Roger Aitken Despite the share price of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) riding 15 per cent higher than when Deutsche Boerse made its proposed 530p-a-share offer a year ago, time might be running out for any deal involving the LSE....

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Structured Products - Cash management boosted by liquidity plus funds.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Roger Aitken The emergence of enhanced cash funds - otherwise known as liquidity-plus or cash-plus funds - has significantly boosted growth in the cash management industry in Europe alongside traditional money market funds, but has...

Asset Allocation: FTM Interview - Andrew Tong - Standing out from the crowd.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Henry Smith In a Chinese mutual funds market characterised by a high degree of homogeneity, the chances of making money depend to a large degree on a fund house's ability to differentiate its offerings, according to Andrew Tong,...

Asset Allocation: Scheme Spotlight - Teaching fund learns from the school of hard knocks.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Paula Garrido Shrinking funding levels have put some US pension funds under pressure. The country's largest retirement schemes are now looking at boosting investment earnings to fund their growing liabilities. Over the last...

Asset Allocation: Portfolio Flows - FX hedging keeps dollar safe.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Neil Mellor America's current account deficit has been expanding rapidly in recent years. While it ran at an average of $43.31bn (e36bn) per month in 2003, it expanded to $55.67bn a month in 2004 and so far this year is running at...

Asset Allocation: The Consulting Room - Making sure risk is rewarded.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Kevin Carter Pension funds have traditionally set investment strategy by first choosing asset classes and market exposures and then selecting fund managers to implement their choices. However, an alternative approach involves...

Special Report: Absolute Return Strategies - Dedicated followers of investment fashion.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Tim Cooper Absolute return strategies are a rising trend among institutional investors. But will this fad's flame disappear in a puff of smoke or grow into a roaring bonfire? An absolute return strategy seeks to achieve...

Special Report: Absolute Return Strategies - It's time to start thinking in absolutes.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Pascal Blanque The absolute return market is booming. Credit Agricole Asset Management has been active in this market both in terms of the number of absolute return products it has launched and in its innovation in taking...

Special Report: Absolute Return Strategies - Counting bank loans to weather the storm.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Kevin Perry The absolute return qualities of bank loan portfolios come mainly from their near-zero duration and principal value support provided by seniority and collateral. Floating rates largely eliminate interest rate-related...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Europe - Small-cap stocks experiencing boom.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Jeff Currington European equities have performed well since 2003 with small- and mid-caps outperforming blue chip stocks to the extent that they now have a 10 per cent to 15 per cent premium, according to Dow Jones. Strong returns...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - North America - US political tension seeps into Canada.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Scott Ayres With Ben Bernanke's nomination to succeed Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chairman proving to be one of the rare non-controversial ones for the Bush administration, we expect to see continuity by the Fed following Mr...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - South America - Dirty fight could hit Latin equity run.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Mike Reynal Latin American equities have been the best performing region in emerging markets for the year to date, rising nearly twice as much in dollar terms as the benchmark MSCI Emerging Markets Free Index. As we look forward...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Asia Pacific - Korea expected to continue rising.
December 1, 2005... Byline: James Cameron This year has been an extremely good one for investing in the Korean stock market. Year-to-date, the Kospi index is up 45 per cent as local liquidity has flooded into equity-type installment funds. However, there has...

Special Report: Asia - Third-party input helps mpf tackle performance.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Henry Smith Increasing job mobility among contributors to Hong Kong's Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) is leading to bottom-up pressure on investment product providers to improve performance. According to Dr Mark Konyn, chief...

Special Report: Asia - Quality will attract big banks' attention.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Henry Smith The Chinese government should remove the restriction of the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) quota and allow a free flow of offshore money into the country in order to boost capital markets. The call...

Sponsored Report: Asia - Holding out for china share reform benefits.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Tan Kong Yam Domestic Chinese A-shares reached their high in the middle of 2001 and have followed a downward trend ever since. It is puzzling to many investors why the Chinese stock market could lose more than half of its value...

Strategy Selection: Property - The attractive alternative.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Christine Senior Worldwide institutional investors are being seduced by real estate. Property has produced some impressive returns over almost any period during the last 15 years, and with bonds offering low returns and equity...

Strategy Selection: Hedge Funds - The right course for the right horse.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Paula Garrido Over the last decade increasing interest from institutional investors in hedge funds has resulted in the asset class becoming an important component in their investment portfolios. More significantly, as more...

Technology: Straight-through-processing - Funds slow on the uptake.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Ana Miro The financial industry has made great strides in introducing straight- through-processing (STP) - handling the paperwork which accompanies any trading of shares, bonds and currencies and involves the front and back office...

Sponsored Report: Algorithmic Trading - Learning to use the technology tool.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Dr Tom Middleton Algorithmic trading has used up many column inches and conference minutes in 2005, and this level of publicity looks set to continue in 2006 as take up increases and available products evolve. The majority of...

Sponsored Report: Algorithmic Trading - Straders to electronic platforms.
December 1, 2005... FT Mandate: With algorithmic trading seemingly besieging stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic over the past year, do you think both buy and sell-side users still need education about algorithmic trading techniques? Joseph Wald:...

Sponsored Report: Algorithmic Trading - Streamlined trading and increased liquidity.
December 1, 2005... FTMandate: With all the noise surrounding algorithmic trading in the past year and the hype surrounding direct market access (DMA), black box and even white box trading, do investors still need to be educated about techniques to achieve the...

Sponsored Report: Algorithmic Trading - solutions that are just a click away.
December 1, 2005... With the steady growth of the foreign exchange (FX) markets and the increasing adoption of electronic FX (eFX) among market participants, algorithmic trading is emerging as the next level of trading technology. Coupled with the growth of the...

Performance Overview: An eye for a Korean bargain.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Paula Garrido The Asian region continues to provide attractive investment opportunities for investors across the world. The PF-Asian Equities (ex Japan) fund, managed by Pictet Funds, has been able to deliver consistent performance...

Security Services: News & Analysis - Good year continues as BNY bags Hermes due diligence.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Roger Aitken The decision by Hermes Pensions Management, a GBP60bn (e49.9bn) UK-based asset manager, to select the Bank of New York (BNY) to participate in exclusive due diligence with a view to providing investment outsourcing...

Security Services: News & Analysis - Trade Processing - Omgeo reveals big demand for fixed income trades.(Omgeo)(Brief article)
December 1, 2005... Byline: Roger Aitken As Omgeo, a provider of post-trade, pre-settlement trade management services, surpassed the $10,000bn mark in processed US fixed income trades via the Oasys trade allocation and acceptance service in the first three...

Support Services: Outsourcing - Moving to pastures new.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Roger Aitken With Societe Generale having established SG Global Securities Services for Investors (SG GSSI) in early 2004, the division is stealthily rolling out a strategy for which it has high hopes - and particularly so on the...

Sponsored Report: Securities Lending - Choosing the right path to securities lending.
December 1, 2005... Byline: Paul Wilson There are many reasons why institutions are attracted to securities lending, but those which decide to get involved will be faced with the same issues of managing risk, reinvesting collateral and how best to maximise...