Financial Times Mandate articles from March 2005

Financial Times Mandate archives from March 2005

From the Editor: Hedge fund reporting needs overhaul.(Editorial)
March 1, 2005... Considering the high fees, low transparency and disappointing performance of late, it's a wonder that institutional investors continue to pour money into hedge funds. Just as surprising is the tendency for investors, particularly newcomers...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Key hedge fund investments make tawdry start to year.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Several hedge fund strategies produced negative returns in January, results that will rile investors who contributed large flows to these alternative investments in 2004. The latest research from French business school Edhec has found that...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Jury's out on which type of stock will do best in Europe.(survey)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... European fund managers are becoming less certain about which investment styles work best in the current market, according to the latest report from Morningstar. In January, 65 per cent of those surveyed thought large capitalisation...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Liverpool Victoria Asia- Pacific revamp.(restructuring)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... UK life protection firm Liverpool Victoria has shaken up its Asia-Pacific fund manager line up with the aim of reducing it and improving investment returns. Schroder Investment Management has been sacked from an active Japanese equity...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Investment - Small caps 'offer biggest returns over long term'.(analysis)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The smallest stocks offer the biggest long-term returns, according to research from the London Business School. An investigation into the past performance of British equities has shown that GBP1 (e1.42) invested in the UK market at the start of...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - UK funds reveal property penchant.(survey)
March 1, 2005... UK pension funds are increasingly opting to investment in real estate, according to a survey, with two-thirds stating that poor equity performance has driven them to explore non-traditional asset classes. The finding come in a JPMorgan...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Faith in emerging markets.(Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust PLC)
March 1, 2005... Emerging markets remain a good bet for this year, according to experts on the asset class. F&C Asset Management has heeded their advice, heavily increasing the allocation to emerging markets of one its flagship products. The Foreign and...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Brokers pressured to provide better research.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Several big names in the global investment community, including PGGM and BNP Paribas, have clubbed together to put pressure on brokers to provide better research. The pension funds involved are aiming to coerce further fund managers into...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Study finds trustees missing default risk.
March 1, 2005... UK pension schemes are failing to take account of the risk of default by their sponsoring company when determining funding and investment policy, thereby exposing scheme members to additional risks, according to research by Standard & Poor's....

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Insurers acting cautiously.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Life insurers, arguably the biggest potential source of new business for fund managers, are set to increase their allocations to fixed income even further, according to findings announced at the FT Business event Managing Assets for Life...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Baring confidence in Asian equities.(investments)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Investors should boost their exposure to Asian equities, particularly in Japan, to capitalise on a predicted revival in the Chinese economy over the coming months, according to Baring Asset Management. But the fund manager's optimism for...

Comment: The Bender Agenda - Life assurers seek salvation from external fund houses.
March 1, 2005... Life insurance companies have long had an image problem. According to popular perception their representatives are dusty, ascetic actuaries, old-fashioned, unimaginative fixed income managers or untrustworthy, high-pressure salesmen. There...

Asset Allocation: The Chief - Giving Britons a taste of Gallic.
March 1, 2005... Reclining cross-legged in his London office, sporting a casual, open-necked shirt and golden tan, Bruno Crastes positively bristles with confidence and self-belief. Charged with winning global fixed income and tactical asset allocation (TAA)...

Asset Allocation: Scheme Spotlight - Lothian's high risk-taking route is just the ticket.(Lothian Pension Fund)
March 1, 2005... Under the winter ice and snow in the north of the British Isles lies one of the UK's largest retirement schemes. The GBP2bn (e2.9bn) Lothian Pension Fund is far from frozen, however. A high-risk-taking scheme, with a heavy allocation to...

Asset Allocation: FTM Interview - Daniel Roy - Institutionalised thinking with roots in retail.(Interview)
March 1, 2005... Natexis Asset Management (NAM), investment subsidiary of France's sixth largest bank, Group Banque Populaire, has already put down its marker as one of the country's fastest growing fund production units. Now it has received an extra shot in...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Europe - Expect mergers and other bold moves.
March 1, 2005... The European earnings season is well under way, and the pattern of positive surprises seen during 2004 has continued. Almost 60 per cent of companies reporting this year have matched or exceeded analysts expectations, reflecting greater than...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - North America - Manufacturers offset input costs.
March 1, 2005... Commodity prices have surged in the past year, reflecting a global economic expansion and strong demand from China and other emerging markets in particular. While energy has dominated the headlines, other commodities such as metals - precious...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - South America - Currencies offer opportunities.
March 1, 2005... Latin American currencies have their place in a currency portfolio positioned for a weaker dollar. The most obvious regional local currency opportunity at present is in Brazil. Despite low inflation, the central bank is over-prudent in...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Asia Pacific - Evidence points to good performance.
March 1, 2005... Asian analysts are suffering from optimism fatigue in 2005. After being almost excessively bullish on the region's prospects in 2004 - when corporate earnings were forecast to expand by 45 per cent - they expect growth of just 5.6 per cent this...

Asset Allocation: The Panel - MetallRente pioneers risk strategy.(risk management)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... MetallRente, the Berlin-based pension fund for Germany's metal industry, is pioneering a new approach to risk management in its two-year-old E360m Anglo- Saxon-style scheme. The new pension scheme uses a "real-time stress test- based" technique...

Asset Allocation: The Panel - Leicestershire bets on overseas stocks.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Diversification is the governing principle at the UK's Leicestershire County Council GBP1.5bn pension scheme. From its equity investments to its real estate portfolio, each of the scheme's strategies is aimed at spreading bets, according to...

Asset Allocation: Mandate Analysis - Pension funds stick with fixed.(regulations for pension funds)
March 1, 2005... Over the last year corporate pension funds have shown their renewed confidence in the equity markets by awarding almost as many equity mandates as fixed income mandates to external managers. However, according to data compiled by FT Mandate,...

Asset Allocation: Managing Assets for Insurance Companies - Life insurers ponder the outsourcing question.
March 1, 2005... With $11,500bn (e8778bn) of assets in play worldwide, insurance is big business. Life insurers are by the far the most powerful players in the industry, controlling 82 per cent of the assets. Yet their sector has been weakened by poor returns...

Asset Allocation: Portfolio Flows - Asian reserve slowdown just a blip.(foreign exchange reserve)
March 1, 2005... As of February 12, all of Asia's central banks/monetary authorities apart from China's had published their end-of-January foreign exchange reserve numbers. These revealed a slight drop in the level of FX reserves of about $2.4bn (e1.83bn). On...

Asset Allocation: Mandate Sectoral Focus - Overweighting in small caps.(small capitalization stocks)
March 1, 2005... A decline in the numbers of analysts covering small-cap stocks is fuelling opportunities for investors to earn extra return, according to Prashant Bhayani, head of European and international small cap equity at Goldman Sachs Asset Management....

Strategy Selection: The Consulting Room - Innovation and self confidence.
March 1, 2005... Graziano Lusenti, one of Switzerland's best known pension fund consultants, may have been working in the investment market place for 20 years but things are not getting any easier for him and his ilk. In the 1980s, the talk in both Geneva...

Strategy Selection: Sweden's AP1 seeking emerging market managers.(investment)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Sweden's E15bn AP1 pension fund is putting GBP1bn (E1.45bn) out to tender following a decision to take more investment risk. The national fund is looking for emerging markets equity managers - both passive and active, and expert in either...

Strategy Selection: Dream Team - Resurrecting Deutsche.(Deutsche Asset Management Inc.)
March 1, 2005... Regrouping after a string of mandate losses, Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) has won a small victory that could signal a turnaround in its fortunes. The firm has retreated to its heartland, moving its headquarters from London to Frankfurt, so...

Strategy Selection: Sub-advisory Uncovered - Controlling client relationships.
March 1, 2005... The origins of open architecture across Europe can be traced back to the private banks serving the needs of Europe's wealthy. It is accepted among private banks and their clients that having relationships with multiple providers makes good...

Special Report: Derivatives - Orchestrating the perfect match.
March 1, 2005... Given regulatory pressures over assets and liabilities, it should come as no surprise that derivatives are proving as popular as penicillin in a flu epidemic. Where big funds lead, smaller ones are likely to follow, and State Street Global...

Special Report: Derivatives - Asset/liability matching and european funds.
March 1, 2005... Asset/liability management (ALM) transactions have had a major influence upon financial markets over the past five years, and this trend shows no sign of abating. Dutch and UK pension funds are now following in the footsteps of UK life...

Special Report: Derivatives - contemplating liability driven investing.
March 1, 2005... As capital markets have continued to rise from the depths of late 2002, innovative investment solutions have surfaced that incorporate the lessons of the past. The conventional approach to strategic benchmarking was simply inadequate and too...

Performance Overview: A good nose for European stocks.
March 1, 2005... "I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to looking at companies," confesses David Molnar, portfolio manager of AIG's Emerging Europe Equity Fund. He appears to know how to pick them. His $98m (e75m) fund has beaten the entire spectrum of global...

Special Report: Structured Credit Products - Quest for extra yield while mitigating risk.
March 1, 2005... Spreads between corporate and government bonds have narrowed to historically tight margins, leaving institutional investors searching for extra yield. This partly explains the growing demand for structured credit products, particularly over the...

Strategy Selection: FX Focus - Time to buck the trend.(mutual fund industry)
March 1, 2005... This decade has been characterised by growing investor disillusionment with traditional equity and bond funds. With the bursting of the equity bubble in 2000 and the subsequent collapse in yields in most bond markets, the search is on for...

Strategy Selection: FX Focus - How to grab currency alpha.
March 1, 2005... Currency is a funny thing: almost all pension funds have a material, systematic exposure to it through their foreign investments, and yet few monitor and manage it to anywhere near the same extent as they do for other systematic exposures like...

Support Services: Securities Services News - BNY undercuts State Street to make off with e2.2bn brief.(The Bank of New York)
March 1, 2005... The Bank of New York has pinched a GBP1.5bn (e2.2bn) mandate from State Street after significantly undercutting its rival's fees. The poaching comes as R&M's annual report on custody client satisfaction has revealed that State Street's service...

Support Services: Securities Services News - Euronext takeover of LSE now more likely.(Euronext N.V. and London Stock Exchange PLC merger)
March 1, 2005... All eyes are on Euronext now that Deutsche Boerse has withdrawn its bid for the London Stock Exchange in the face of shareholder opposition. A Euronext takeover of the LSE could prove easier to stomach for users and may bring more benefits than...

Support Services: Technology - Staying out front in hedge fund management.
March 1, 2005... As the hedge fund industry blossoms into an increasingly diverse and complex range of strategies, with a growing and changing client base, those in the business of supporting the industry must work hard to keep up. Hedge fund administrators and...