Financial Times Mandate articles from December 2008

Financial Times Mandate archives from December 2008

Analysis: Credits attractive but not without risk.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith Investors should "stuff their portfolios" with as many corporate bonds as they are able to buy in current market conditions. "Many areas of the credit market are very attractively-priced but the challenge is...

Analysis: Tough time ahead for private equity.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward The next 12 months look set to be turbulent for private equity funds as credit markets remain seized-up even as bargain multiples come to market. Many are warning that institutional investors faced with problems...

Analysis: Market analysis: Europe.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Arvind Sabharwal European equity markets look increasingly attractive value, with equity prices already pricing in worst-case scenarios. This offers up some great opportunities for the medium- to long-term investor, with...

In brief.
December 1, 2008... IRISH FUNDS WERE OPENED TO THE CHINESE MARKET via the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) regime for the first time on October 23, following a memorandum of understanding between the respective regulators. "This development further...

Analysis: Market Analysis - North America.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Christopher Probyn As discussed in a recent issue of the FT, investors were dismayed by the US Treasury Department's decision to abandon asset purchases under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp). Moreover, banks, realizing the...

ANALYSIS: Diversification may hold schemes back.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Strategic diversification - and governance constraints - has offered little protection over recent months and could get in the way of exploiting opportunity, according to two leading consultants. "Portfolio...

Analysis: Funds move to ensure liquidity.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow Money market funds will press for central bank assurances in 2009 as the industry tries to stem outflows fuelled by investors' fears that some funds have exposure to debts of failed bank Lehman Brothers. Though the...

Analysis: Market Analysis - South America.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Floris Kleemans Over the past decade, Brazil has made impressive progress in monetary stability. President Lula's predecessor, Henrique Fernando Cardoso, laid the foundations for the gradual evolvement of a free-floating exchange...

Analysis: UK unaware of tlp benefits.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith Hapless British investors, rocked by the turmoil in financial markets, should have been rushing to embrace traded life policies (TLPs) as a non-correlated asset class delivering potential returns of around 8-10 per cent...

Analysis: Market Analysis Asia-Pacific.
December 1, 2008... The last few weeks in financial markets have been some of the most extraordinary in many peoples' lifetimes. We have seen unprecedented levels of volatility with markets moving in a day the levels they would normally move in a year. The CBOE...

Analysis: Hedge funds victims and not villains.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith Hedge funds have been cast as the villains who caused the market to collapse when in reality they are the victims of the credit crunch. Nathanael Benzaken, director of hedge fund research and selection at Lyxor...

Comment: Leader - Searching for the shoots of recovery.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith, editor "Things Can Only Get Better" sang Northern Irish pop group D:Ream as Tony Blair's Labour Party swept to power in a landslide UK General Election victory in 1997. The song, which became the soundtrack of the...

Comment: The Consulting Room - Increasingly diverse.(Survey)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Vicken Berberian T he financial crisis has cemented pension funds' desire to further diversify outside their domestic markets and also into alternatives, with more than a third planning to decrease their equity exposure in the next...

Comment: Soapbox - Derivatives prove their worth.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Theo Kocken The financial world is in the middle of one of the largest credit contractions in history and the consequent economic downturn has its impact on every market. The biggest hits are in the over-leveraged market for...

Interviews: The Chief - Bringing Asian equity to Europe.(Mirae Asset Global Investments overview)(Company overview)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward With almost $60bn (EU47bn) under management, Mirae Asset Global Investments is a giant among emerging-market investors, but South Korea still accounts for almost three quarters of the money it manages. After...

Interviews: FTM Interview - Expanding on a global scale.(Company overview)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith The market turmoil which has put paid to the big US broker-dealers and precipitated a so-called "flight to quality" has given some fund administrators a welcome opportunity to extol the virtues of the universal banking...

Features: A very long-term engagement.(Company overview)
December 1, 2008... Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong," mused Sir Winston Churchill. Thankfully, institutional investors probably don't have to worry about this sort of casuistry. Responsible investing...

Cover story: Sustainable investing - Delivering the shareholders' message.(Cover story)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward At the heart of Hermes Equity Ownership Services (EOS) is an apparently paradoxical maxim: "Invest passively, but own actively". In fact, the two sides of that equation are in perfect balance. Many institutional...

Cover story: Sustainable investing - Sustainable alternatives.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward When the Tomorrow's Company think tank launched its paper on "Stewardship" recently, founder director Mark Goyder noted pension funds' growing exposure to alternative investments. "Do they actually follow through...

Strategies: Money market funds - Rebuilding after the 'breakpoint'.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow Providers of institutional money market funds - triple A-rated, domiciled offshore, and with weighted average maturities below 60 days - are holding on to what they are comfortable with and good at during these...

Strategies: Equity derivatives - Derivatives booming in volatile climate.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Ceri Jones Demand for hedging solutions has been strong in this year of falling and volatile stock markets. This, in large part, accounted for the 19 per cent growth in notional amounts of equity derivatives which grew to $11,900bn...

Strategies: Asian hedge funds - Hedge funds to go back to basics.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith Hedge funds will struggle to persuade people to invest with them in 2009, as reputational risk has become a big issue in the wake of steep performance losses. According to Simon Gleave, partner in charge of...

Allocation: ETF platform - A confident outlook.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow Exchange traded funds are ending the year on a high with the industry anticipating a strong 2009, according to key providers within the 100bn European marketplace. Though November was not for the faint-hearted, the...

Performance: Emerging markets equity - Fund performance overview - The riskiest asset of all.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Sometimes these "unprecedented" times feel just like the bad old days. Is the MSCI Emerging Markets Index falling 66 per cent peak-to-trough, Russia driving tanks into Georgia (and getting its debt downgraded), Thai...

Technology: Electronic execution - Providing best execution.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Rekha Menon Algorithmic trading initially began in the equities world, but has since spread to other asset classes, including the rapidly burgeoning FX market. A recent report by Boston-based analyst firm, Aite Group estimates that...

Technology: Fund administration - Not quite a global one-stop shop.
December 1, 2008... Byline: Gerry O'kane The idea that Asia and China might be immune to a sneeze in the US economy has been proved incorrect and cross-border asset flows continue to run like a raging torrent. Paradoxically this fact has strengthened the...