Financial Times Mandate articles from February 2008

Financial Times Mandate archives from February 2008

From the editor: Hypocrisy over sovereign wealth.(Editorial)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith, editor Am I alone in thinking that the suspicion and criticism directed at sovereign wealth funds by bankers, politicians, regulators and journalists in Europe and the US is a tad unsavoury and not a little...

News & comment: Strategies, products & mandates - Investors search complete private equity spectrum.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward The challenges faced by private equity groups as the credit contraction bites do not appear to have affected institutional investors' appetite for the asset class. In fact, investors and fund managers at Opal...

News & comment: Strategies, products & mandates - Start-up managers to get seed capital.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Financial Risk Management (FRM), a $14bn (9.82bn)fund of hedge funds, is launching a new business, FRM Capital Advisors (FCA), which aims to raise $1bn this year to provide seed capital for early-stage or start-up...

News & comment: Strategies, products & mandates - Hedge funds defy volatility to outperform benchmarks.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Hedge funds outperformed the major traditional benchmarks through volatile market conditions last year, according to data from hedge fund index providers Credit Suisse/Tremont, HFR, Greenwich Alternative...

News & comment: Strategies, products & mandates - Opinion split on accounting standards proposals.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward A controversial discussion paper on proposed changes to the accounting standards applicable to UK pension funds has provoked fierce debate in the industry. The proposals put forward by the Accounting Standards...

News & comment: The consulting room - Managing the managers.
February 1, 2008... Fiduciary management is a hot topic in the Netherlands, with large new mandates being awarded, such as the 21bn fiduciary mandate awarded to Mn Services by PME, and the 4.6bn multi-manager brief awarded to Interpolis (now Syntrus) by the Akzo...

News & comment: Market analysis - Europe - Question mark over inflation.
February 1, 2008... After a three-year bull run, European markets have been hit by volatility and multiple corrections and equities are now 25 per cent lower than their summer 2007 highs. The catalyst for this volatility has been the deterioration in credit...

News & comment: Market analysis - North America - Preparing to change strategy.
February 1, 2008... We find ourselves at a crossroads. With the things that we thought would do well in 2007 having done very well, and the parts of the market we avoided having been sold off, we are close to needing to make big changes to our strategy. To...

News & comment: Market analysis - South America - Growth is strong despite volatility.
February 1, 2008... Latin American markets have been very volatile year-to-date, in sympathy with global equity markets. However, economic growth across the region is strong, with inflation in some countries close to record lows. Interest rates have been falling...

News & comment: Market analysis - Asia Pacific - Ready to take a leading position.
February 1, 2008... Asia will become the world's dominant economic region in this century. The Asian Development Bank estimates that in 2007 and 2008 alone, growth in the region will exceed 8 per cent, ahead of most countries in the rest of the world. So what are...

Features & interviews: FTM interview - Gilbert Van Hassel - An opportunity to excel.(Company overview)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith Large asset managers face a future as uncertain as present market conditions. Recent investment industry reports predict that they will lose out to a growing number of specialist fund groups over the next decade as...

Features & interviews: The chief - Barreiro nurtures BBVA's broad ambitions.(Company overview)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow Few investment bankers, whether in Europe or the US, are looking forward to the next 12 months. A mix of widening credit spreads, little deal flow and the actions of Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel, have already...

Cover story: Hedge funds - Pulling power.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Shortly before Christmas, Aoiffin Devitt, managing director of alternative investments advisory firm Clontarf Capital, offered a bottle of champagne for the best definition of alpha. The lucky winner? "Alpha is...

Strategies, allocation & performance: China - Tougher year predicted for China ventures.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith Unstable market conditions have forced Fortis Haitong Investment Management to reconsider the strategy of a new mutual fund planned for launch under China's Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) scheme....

Strategies, allocation & performance: Fixed income - Japanese bonds seek a wider audience.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow A series of investor roadshows slated for this year and hosted by the Japanese ministry of finance (MoF) will aim to stimulate foreign investor activity in the yen-denominated bond market. However, what makes the...

Strategies, allocation & performance: Equity derivatives - Pension funds cultivate a taste for complexity.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Elizabeth Cripps Pension funds and other institutions are upping their demand not only for equity derivatives but for more sophisticated, tailor-made products within the asset class. Recent figures from the International Swaps...

Special report: Exchange-traded funds - Fixed-interest etfs gaining ground.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Ceri Jones The fixed-interest exchange-traded funds (ETF) market may only be small, at around 90 funds in the US compared with about 500 equity ETFs, but in terms of attracting new inflows the raft of launches in this sector last...

Strategies, allocation & performance: Sponsored article - ETF platform - Europe lags in securities lending.
February 1, 2008... Since ETFs are a costlier proposition than traditional index-tracking funds, institutional investors considering them as the core in a core-satellite asset allocation model are usually advised to engage in securities lending to offset the...

Strategies, allocation & performance: Fund performance overview - Emerging as a safer bet.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Institutional investors are gradually getting the message on emerging market (EM) debt. JPMorgan put 2007 inflows into the asset class at just under $40bn, and expects that to be exceeded this year. The story is...

Special report: Execution venues - Convergence ahead?
February 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest With the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) deadline now long passed and the slow-burn process of change under way, the future shape of the European equity trading landscape is becoming clearer. With, as...

Sponsored report: Execution venues - MIFID heralds the rise of MTFS.
February 1, 2008... Chi-X has launched, Turquoise is coming, Rainbow is announced and there are a multitude of hopeful new trading venues waiting in the wings. Transatlantic airline company share prices are soaring as anyone with decent order matching technology...

Operations, trading & technology: Mergers - Combined exchange extols efficiencies.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest Given their merger's rocky beginning, the meshing of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's systems with those of its partner, the Chicago Board of Trade, perhaps should have been more complex. Although it was more than nine...

Operations, trading & technology - IT spend - An inclination to integrate.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest This year's IT budgets demonstrate a renewed commitment to straight-through processing (STP) and enterprise data management (EDM) systems, according to a recent report from consultancy Aite Group. Third-party vendors...

Operations, trading & technology - Trading venues - Can Cinnober banish Turquoise's blues?
February 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest When Eli Lederman stood up in front of a packed room at January's Finexpo financial technology conference, the audience was hoping for a new revelation about an alternative exchange that has generated more press...

Operations, trading & technology: M&A - Deutsche Bank buys into hedge fund admin market.(Company overview)
February 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest Deutsche Bank has joined the wave of consolidation in the hedge fund administration market, buying California-based HedgeWorks for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 1999, HedgeWorks has around 100 hedge fund and fund...

Special report: Fund domiciles - Europe raises its game.
February 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward When hedge fund domicile shopping, what managers want is a tax regime that doesn't punish their investors, a flexible investment mandate (authorised as fast as possible) and good fund servicing. Historically,...

Operations, trading & technology: Sponsored article - Fund administrator's diary - Hedge funds' flexible friend.
February 1, 2008... Despite its diminutive size, Bermuda has become a powerhouse in the hedge fund world. Clearly, the island's advantageous tax regime provides a good reason for funds to be domiciled there. Another significant factor in attracting hedge funds to...