Financial Times Mandate articles from March 2007

Financial Times Mandate archives from March 2007

From the Editor: Time for mega funds to come clean.(Editorial)
March 1, 2007... At time of writing, it was reported that Blackstone, the private equity group, had paid just over GBP1bn (1.46bn) in cash for the Tussauds Group, owners of the famous Madame Tussauds waxworks in London. While the deal creates the world's...

Strategies, Products & Mandates: News & Analysis - The new must-have item for institutions.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Nat Mankelow Fund managers and their institutional clients will step up investment exposure in derivatives over the next few years, senior figures at a recent industry gathering have concluded. The general consensus by close of...

Products & Strategies News: A strong ratings and high yield nirvana.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Nat Mankelow The use of complex credit instruments is expected to continue growing as more structured products come to market and the fallout from a low yield/narrow spread climate intensifies. Institutional investors,...

News & Analysis: Products & Strategies - Early birds will win in commodities.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Kalpana Fitzpatrick Pension funds across the globe are continuing to look at commodity investments despite recent declines in returns, according to Barclays Capital. New players and increasing competition in the commodities...

Products & Strategies News: Russia to move away from vanilla bonds.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Nat Mankelow The Russian bond market will host increasingly sophisticated fixed income products as more investors look for value in emerging market debt, senior issuers forecast. Currently, fixed income issuance in Russia is...

Products & Strategies News: Buy-side torn over OMS or EMS take-up.(order management systems)(execution management system)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Roger Aitken Traditional buy-side firms are divided over whether they should upgrade their existing order management systems (OMS), retain their existing OMS or make an execution management system (EMS) investment, according to...

Asset Allocation: Portfolio Flows - What it takes to break through $2.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Neil Mellor Over the past quarter of a century the price of sterling against the dollar has been constrained by two simple numbers: $1 (the price sterling almost reached in the dark days of early 1985) and $2 (the price sterling...

Strategy Selection: The Consulting Room - Mixing to go beyond liabilities.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Paul Trickett Most pension fund investors seek to derive returns from both alpha and beta. However, not enough attention is given to how much of the total risk budget should be spent on these two components and how they should be...

Market Barometer: Managers predicted equity collapse.(Survey)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Elizabeth Cripps Fund managers interviewed only a week before equity markets collapsed predicted consolidation or a rise, according to the latest World Management Indicator from Natexis Asset Management. More than half of fund...

Strategy Selection: Hedge Fund Performance Measurement - The problem of measuring ever-changing hedge funds.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Ceri Jones As hedge funds hold a diverse portfolio of different assets, comparing their performance against traditional market indices is always going to be an imperfect science. Credit Suisse Index Company, in a report titled The...

Performance Overview: Spreading its bets for alpha.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Paula Garrido Gideon Smith, deputy CIO at Axa Rosenberg, describes the firm's approach to investment as a quantitative one "based on traditional, fundamental analysis of stocks in a very detailed way". This approach has proved...

News: Securities Services - Preparing for a David versus Goliath world.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Roger Aitken Even before the merger of Bank of New York and Mellon Corporation last December to create the world's largest securities services firm, the prognosis for a relatively "finite number" of very large players in securities...

Asset Allocation: FTM Interview - Marna Whittington - Hard lessons learned to create more robust structure.(Financial Times Mandate)(Interview)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Henry Smith It might not be the story of the phoenix rising from the ashes but the re- emergence of a leaner, meaner Nicholas Applegate from the wreckage of the 2000 stock market crash is impressive nonetheless. The $14.8bn...

Asset Allocation: The Chief - Going all out to achieve alpha.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Paula Garrido The changing nature of institutional asset management driven by the separation of alpha and beta returns has led some of the world's asset management firms to rethink the way they run their businesses and promote...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Europe - On course despite recent pullbacks.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Ben Williams After another 20 per cent returning year in European markets, then, at time of writing, a 6 per cent pullback, which is the right direction for this market? Germany's coalition has raised taxes but deferred...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - North America - Economy heading for a soft landing.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Elizabeth Para Last quarter US Treasury yields traded within a 40 basis point range. The threat of inflation countered the threat from a slowing housing market, keeping Treasury yields relatively range-bound. Although the longer...

Asset Allocation: South America - Financial stability becoming the norm.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Jerome Booth Structural reforms have been lacklustre of late but macro-economic balances have turned dramatically positive. Second generation fiscal reforms to increase expenditure efficiency, help deliver public goods and...

Asset Allocation: Asia Pacific - Investors take a shine to property.
March 1, 2007... Byline: John Su One leading property consultant predicted early last year that global direct commercial real estate investment could reach $600bn (456bn) in 2006. This estimation is turning out to be a fairly accurate prognosis given the...

Strategy Selection: Non-correlated Asset Classes - Providing an escape route for when it all goes wrong.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Paula Garrido Institutional investor interest in alternative asset classes has been on the rise over the last decade. Alternative assets offer investors new routes to finding extra returns by investing in markets and strategies not...

Strategy Selection: Hedge Fund Transparency - Shattering returns with transparency.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Ceri Jones Hedge fund managers are nervous that their complex investment strategies might fall into the wrong hands and have long shrouded their holdings in secrecy. But increased competition to attract funds, and the greater...

Strategy Selection: Asian Equities - Investors keep the faith in China A- shares despite fall.
March 1, 2007... The repercussions of the recent dramatic fall in China's A-share market for both domestic and joint venture fund management companies should be limited, according to Peter Alexander, head of Shanghai-based consultants, Z-Ben Advisors. He...

Strategy Selection: High Yield Bonds - Surge in demand for Euro high yield creates flattened curve.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Nat Mankelow The high yield bond market in Europe is currently in vogue as a benign macro- economic environment and historically low default rates combine to produce an abundance of liquidity for both investor and issuer. New...

Technology: Clearing and Settlement - Judgement day beckons for T2S as calculations questioned.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Roger Aitken While the European Central Bank (ECB) might score top marks for unleashing its Target2 Securities (T2S) concept to unsuspecting droves of bankers last summer, its "back of a cigarette packet" economic analysis behind...

Technology: FX Focus - Keeping up with pace of change.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Gerry O'Kane As the volumes of foreign exchange trading continue to grow, enabled by ever- more sophisticated order management systems (OMS), there are increasing concerns that the back-office might not be able to keep up. The...

Support Services: Fund Administration - Is Malta coming to the fore in the fund administration world?
March 1, 2007... Byline: Hugo Greenhalgh When Malta acceded to the European Union on 1 May 2004 many in the funds industry eagerly expected the small island state to take the lead in providing specialist fund administration. In line with the other...

News: Securities Services - Citigroup gets it right in transaction services.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Gerry O'Kane When Citigroup announced its fourth quarter results, most of the media comment focused on relatively poor results from the corporate and investment banking business. In spite of higher revenues of 14 per cent, net...

Special Supplement: Straight-through Processing - Not dead and forgotten.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Gerry O'Kane One could be forgiven for thinking that the topic of the late-1990s, straight-through processing (STP), was either dead or surpassed. "You'd think it has gone quiet but within investment management companies STP...

Special Supplement: Sleeping on the mifid watch.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Gerry O'Kane Among so many of the market developments of the past few years, one of the most influential regulatory changes is set to be the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). It promises greater transparency for...

Special Supplement: Profile - Buying up the big guns.(State Street Corp. to acquire Investors Financial Services Corp.)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Gerry O'Kane In true custodian style, nothing happens in the consolidation arena for ages and then, just like proverbial London buses, two arrive at once. However, it seems the industry has been less surprised by State Street's...

Special Supplement: Introduction - Is bigger better in wake of mergers?(Company overview)
March 1, 2007... Byline: Gerry O'Kane They're off! First out of the gate is Bank of New York's merger with Mellon, swiftly followed by State Street's acquisition of Investors Financial Services (IFS), out of IBT. Behind these two leaders is...? The...

Special Supplement: Roundtable - it all comes back to a matter of evolution.(Discussion)(Company overview)
March 1, 2007... Henry Smith: According to investment management consultants, Investit, there were 35 live investment operations outsourcing deals at the end of 2006. Such outsourcing contracts have been marked by a number of headline failures, albeit dating...