Financial Times Mandate articles from June 2008

Financial Times Mandate archives from June 2008

FSA clampdown on short positions in rights issues.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward The Financials Services Authority (FSA) has introduced new provisions into its Code of Market Conduct which require the disclosure of significant short positions in stocks admitted to trading on prescribed markets...

Iosco criticises inadequate models.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow Institutional investors and investment banks had inadequate risk models and internal controls to understand and address the risks contained in structured finance products, a report into last year's credit crisis has...

Market analysis - Europe.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Tony Dolphin The European Central Bank (ECB) is ten years old. During its first decade it had to deal with the technology bubble and its subsequent collapse, fears of global deflation, euro weakness and euro strength and the recent...

In brief.(BH Macro Ltd invest into Brevan Howard Master Fund)(Newton Investment Management picked up a $250m from labor pension fund )(Pension Insurance Corporation contracts)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Brevan Howard Asset Management saw its BH Macro Ltd become the first single- manager hedge fund to make the FTSi 1/2250 in June, 15 months after joining the LSE's Main Market. BH Macro Ltd invests into Brevan Howard Master Fund, a...

Market analysis - North America.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Daniel Farley There is an old Wall Street saying that equity markets climb a wall of worry. Given the issues facing stocks right now, the hurdle is the size of the Great Wall of China. Stocks face a formidable list of headwinds:...

F&C launches new hong kong office.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith F&C Investments has opened a new office in Hong Kong with a view to targeting institutional investors and mutual fund distributors in the Asia-Pacific region. Subject to securing a licence from the Hong Kong...

Avoiding risk the prime concern.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Global pension fund managers are more concerned with decreasing portfolio volatility than increasing returns in current market conditions, according to a new poll from SEI, the $185bn (i 1/2120bn) institutional asset...

Market analysis - South America.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Gorky Urquieta Brazil's 'graduation' into the league of countries rated investment grade thanks to S&P's upgrade in late April marks an economic divide of South America. Brazil, along with neighbors such as Colombia, which also...

Market analysis - Asia Pacific.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Vanessa Donegan This year's sharp slowdown in US activity would have posed a significant problem for Asian markets in previous cycles, but this time, while the region is not immune, robust intra-regional trade and strong domestic...

Buyers positioning for price correction.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward June 2008 may turn out to have been a key month for oil prices. June 6 saw a rise of almost $11 (i 1/27)/bbl, the biggest ever single-day increase, and prices nudged a new record at just under $140/bbl on June 16....

Wealth funds not motivated by profit.(Report)
June 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith No evidence has emerged to support fears that the investment behaviour of sovereign wealth funds is politically motivated. An analysis of publicly-reported equity market transactions involving sovereign wealth funds...

Leader - The triumph of greed and fear.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith - Editor Despite the widespread adoption of disciplines such as quantitative and value style investing, the movement of financial markets is governed by the twin forces of fear and greed to a far greater extent than...

The Consulting Room - Managing buyouts.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Andrew Dawson The traditional role for the pension fund buyout market in the UK has been securing the benefits for schemes that are winding up. Although there are exceptions, many of the recent buyouts are schemes that started to...

Soapbox - The benefits of widening spreads.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Chris Oulton One of the major effects of the credit crunch has been a dramatic widening in spreads between Libor and the Bank of England base rate. This has had a beneficial effect for investment products which are Libor-based...

The chief - Time to focus.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith As an occasional lecturer in asset management at the University of Cologne in Germany, Dr Rudolf Apenbrink knows the value of education. It is one of the reasons why he is beefing up the sales team at the Hong Kong...

Tackling the thorny issues.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow Little was made of the decision when 12 months ago Lloyds TSB bank recruited Stuart Stephen, the previous pensions chief at Barclays bank and Sainsbury's, to run its GBP16.1bn (i 1/220.2bn, $31.6bn) pension fund. Since...

Increase allocation, but be aware of the risks.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Gumersindo Oliveros knows a thing or two about allocating institutional money to alternative investments. And the director of the World Bank's pension plan, which made its first real estate investment in 1971 and has...

Identifying skill, the source of alpha.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Rick Di Mascio Alpha - now portable alpha; Beta - now alternative beta; Gamma - now what next? To borrow from Led Zeppelin - no wonder investors are "Dazed and Confused". So what does it all mean and does it have any relevance to...

Allocation - ETF platform - Time for ETFs to go green.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow When New York asset manager, Van Eck Global, checked its diary to find an appropriate time to launch an ETF based on the solar energy business, one day jumped out. Earth Day on April 22 not only witnessed a groundswell...

Strategies - Infrastructure - Building a case for infrastructure.
June 1, 2008... Infrastructure has gained momentum as an investable asset class in the US and Europe. Yet the relative newness of infrastructure as a discrete investment - particularly in the US - means that little return data exists on which investors are...

Asset-backed securities - Investors position for ABS recovery.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward When a big institutional investor like Mitsubishi Corporation buys a 19.5 per cent stake in a firm dedicated to fixed-income hedge funds and structured debt vehicles, and stumps up a further $300m (i 1/2194.4m) to...

Equities research - Sell-side research feels the squeeze.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow The value attached to equities research by institutional investors is under the spotlight again as the market prepares itself for another jolt of disruption, especially within global equities. Since the...

Agricultural commodities - Profiting from the world's growing appetite.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest As trends go, this is probably the biggest there is. By 2020, the UN estimates that the population of the earth will hit 7.5bn, which amounts to eight new mouths to feed every three seconds. Concurrently, cultivatable...

Hedge funds - Hedge funds don't provide diversification from equities.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith Institutional investors who are pouring money into hedge funds may not reap the portfolio diversification benefit they anticipate. Research by Ibbotson Associates, an investment consulting subsidiary of Morningstar...

Japan large-cap - Fund performance overview - Is the sun rising on Japan?
June 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Talk about "de-coupling" through 2007 focused on emerging markets. That view looks increasingly problematic, but the debate usually neglected to mention one developed equity market that really is de-coupled from the...

Globalisation - Providing support on a global scale.
June 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest The word globalisation seems to carry with it innumerable meanings. It is often used to describe the simple mechanics of supply chains or the pervasion of international brands across all geographies. For some it has...

Roundtable - Staying ahead in challenging times.(Discussion)
June 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest Peter Guest: Welcome to the FT Mandate fund administration roundtable. This has been a challenging year so far, and the asset management community continues to innovate to keep ahead. There are some new challenges, and...

Q&A - Delivering key solutions.
June 1, 2008... FT Mandate: As asset managers look to adopt new strategies and enter new markets, what are the technical challenges that administrators and their clients face? Stephen Turner: Over the last three to five years there has been a gradual...

Private equity - Profiting from private equity opportunities.(Company overview)
June 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Private equity fund administration looks like a stone-cold growth opportunity. A broad range of institutional investors who are much more attuned to the value of robust, independent back office support have been...

Q&A - Change in mindset needed.(Interview of Eric Dickinson asset managers)(Interview)
June 1, 2008... FT Mandate: As asset managers look to adopt new strategies and enter new markets, what are the technical challenges that administrators and their clients face? Eric Dickinson: Asset managers are looking to distribute their products on a...