Financial Times Mandate articles from June 2009

Financial Times Mandate archives from June 2009

Analysis: Consultant attacks fund recovery plans.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith Many of the recovery plans drafted by underfunded pension schemes are "a fantasy", according to Dawid Konotey-Ahulu, a partner at investment consultants Redington. Speaking at an investment conference hosted by...

Analysis: Doubt over BGI merger benefit.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson Opinion is divided on whether BlackRock's $13.5bn (EU9.7bn) acquisition of Barclays Global Investors (BGI) will benefit clients. Officials from both firms were quick to emphasise that the transaction gave the...

News in brief.
June 1, 2009... Diversity still drives us investors The impact of the financial crisis has not deflected US institutional investors from their pursuit of portfolio diversification. Seventy per cent of 152 institutions surveyed by Greenwich Associates,...

Analysis: Market Analysis - Europe.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Andrew Allen 2008 was a major turning point for the European property markets, with all except Switzerland recording value falls, according to IPD indices. Capital values declined across the continent's property markets by up to...

Analysis: Owning up to key structural flaws.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow Asset managers have a massive mountain to climb if they are to repair the significant loss of confidence from customers who have seen their savings and investments "destroyed" in recent months, one of the industry's...

Analysis: Market Analysis - North America.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Katharina Lichtner The current economic and credit environment is challenging for US private equity. The effects of the government stimulus packages on the financial services sector hasn't yet resulted in a discernable increase in...

Analysis: Keva takes an active stance.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson Keva, the EU20bn Finnish local government pensions institution, has moved an estimated EU1bn of its emerging market equities from passive to active management. While Keva's chief executive Markku Kauppinen...

Analysis: Market Analysis - South America.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Valentino Gallo The credit crunch and the fall in commodity prices driven by the recession in the western world and the slowdown in China, are taking a toll on Latin American economies. Capital flows to the region waned in recent...

Analysis: MTFS could spark a pricing war.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow The alternative exchanges marketplace is on the verge of a price war as many of the trading platforms that have sprung up this year fight for survival. A number of these new trading platforms, called multilateral...

Analysis: China funds industry.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith Now is the perfect time for asset managers looking to gain a foothold in China to buy into or establish a Sino-foreign joint venture (JV) fund management company, according to Shanghai-based investment consultants,...

Analysis: Market Analysis - Asia Pacific.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Joseph Wat Optimism about a global economic recovery is encouraging investors to look to Asian markets. Signs of stabilisation in economic activity have begun to emerge, with the OECD leading indicators bottoming out. While it is...

Analysis: Money market fund misery.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow Institutional investors have had their fill of money market funds, according to data out this month, which reveals another batch of outflows to cap a miserable few months for the asset class. For the week ending...

Analysis: GSAM makes alternative prediction.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson Irish and UK pensions will allocate more to alternative investments as a result of 2008, according to Goldman Sachs. Paul Craven, managing director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), believes huge losses...

Comment: Leader - DB funds go down without much fight.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith - Editor Barclays announcement of plans to close its final salary pension scheme to existing members probably paves the way for other big UK companies to follow suit. But while the death of defined benefit (DB)...

Comment: The Consulting Room - Covering your assets.(Column)
June 1, 2009... Byline: Gordon Fletcher "I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left." These words from Voltaire will ring true with many sponsors of defined benefit schemes....

Comment: Technology - Progressive relationships.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow As we enter the summer, it is worth looking at how spring proved kind, not cruel, to what surely must be one of capital market's youngest entrants. Successfully installed in April, a gleaming new electronic trading...

Comment: Digital developments - Track our tweets on Twitter.(Brief article)
June 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson In an effort to keep up with the digital movement and get our news, insights and projects out to the public more quickly, FT Mandate can now be followed on Twitter. Our feed is located at www.twitter.com/ftmandate....

Comment: Soapbox - Regulate with some integrity.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Vincent Neate My personal view of the European Commi-ssion's draft directive on alternative investment fund management (AIFM) is unashamedly negative. I do not believe it will achieve anything and, worse, it could be damaging to...

Interview: The Chief - A very long engagement.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith The recent shareholder revolt over directors' pay and bonuses at Royal Dutch Shell is further evidence of growing investor interest in corporate governance as the financial crisis bites hard into portfolio returns. ...

Features: Choosing the right path.
June 1, 2009... The sharp rise in equity markets since March has failed to impress sceptical investors who are busy plotting or implementing strategies to recover steep portfolio losses. Many who invested in hedge funds, private equity and property have...

Strategies: Sovereign wealth funds - A crude vulnerability for SWFs to mitigate.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson Imagine a company where revenues are booming, with billions of dollars coming in each month. Then, in only a few months, things change dramatically and revenues are as little as a quarter of what they were. ...

Strategies: Benchmarking - Complex investments challenge benchmarks.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Gill Wadsworth As fund managers broke free from the confines of traditional asset management mandates, a new world of choice opened up for investors. A wide array of best ideas, multi-asset and specialist funds now sit comfortably...

Strategies: Fixed income - With inflows into global bond funds at their highest since the end of 2004, managers are seizing the day and making wilder plays on the corporate and government debt markets.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow With institutional investors pumping around $1.1bn (EU787m, GBP671m) into global bond funds in the first week of June the biggest inflow since fourth quarter 2004 bond managers are taking advantage of the ongoing...

Strategies: Insurance-linked securities - The security of diversification.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Martin Fagan A year ago, as the financial sector teetered on the edge of the abyss, looking like the combined weight of toxically bad debt and securities backed by subprime mortgages would drag it over the edge, many sage...

Special Supplement: Fund Administration - Basic structures start to crumble.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Gerry O'Kane It comes as no surprise that the recession has hit every area of financial services in a negative way, but for some fund administrators and custodians, the long-term ramifications could be beneficial. While...

Special Supplement: Alternative Investments - A prescription for investor protection.(Conference notes)
June 1, 2009... Byline: Gerry O'Kane The relative silence from the alternative investment market on the new European Commission (EC) draft rules should come as no surprise. The EC announced the draft directive on alternative investment fund managers...

Fund administration: Round table - Regaining product profitability post-crisis.(Discussion)
June 1, 2009... The Roundtable panel Henry Smith - Editor, FT Mandate Eric Dickinson - Head of sales and global relationship management UK, Societe Generale Securities Services Chris Sier - Director, Alpha FMC Arun Sarwal - Chief executive,...

Special Supplement: Securities Lending - Securities lending still fighting an uphill battle.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Kalpana Fitzpatrick The securities lending industry took a battering last year when regulators stepped in and banned short selling following the demise of Lehman Brothers. The industry has since started to pick up, fuelled by...

Special Supplement: Hedge Funds - Settling the fight for hedge funds.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Kalpana Fitzpatrick Hedge funds have undeniably had a rough journey over the past couple of years, but for custodians, this has to some extent presented opportunities as they attempt to capitalise on the heightened concerns of...

Allocation: Exchange traded funds ETF platform - Breaking down barriers.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow Exchange traded funds (ETF) tracking emerging market equities, commodities, currencies and hedge funds, are on investors' wish-lists as we approach the second half of 2009. According to a survey from Edhec, the...

Performance: Emerging market bond funds - Fund performance overview - Emerging unscathed?
June 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson The last 12 months have been a mixed bag for emerging market bond funds, but compared to their equity counterparts, there have been some bright spots alongside the catastrophes. While bonds are considered safer and...

Technology: Stock exchanges - Ready to reform for transparency.
June 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson Like the exchanges of many other places, the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) has seen its value cut in half over the past year and its investors are clamouring for reform. It got so bad in November that the exchange...