Financial Times Mandate articles from May 2005

Financial Times Mandate archives from May 2005

From the Editor: Investors need guardian angels.(Editorial)
May 1, 2005... It would seem the lingering ghosts of the last bear market are scaring off already wary investors. Heavy financial losses combined with allegedly misleading product information have led investors to form a stubbornly negative perception of...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Goldman targets Britain's 'untapped' insurer sector.(Goldman Sachs Asset Management)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Goldman Sachs Asset Management is gearing up for a more aggressive assault on the sub-advisory markets of the UK and northern Europe. The firm has poached David Curtis from Merrill Lynch Investment Managers to spearhead sub-advisory sales...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Look beyond issue of fees, transition manager warns.
May 1, 2005... When engaging the services of a transition manager, many investors look only at commission fees and fail to take account of the larger implicit costs associated with a transition management transaction. According to Simon Hutchinson,...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Outsourcing - Pension funds strengthening links with outside managers.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... The trend among large internally managed pension funds to outsource asset management is evolving from simply awarding specific mandates towards establishing stronger partnerships with investment managers. A prime example of this is the...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Valuation headache dogs hedge funds.
May 1, 2005... The pricing of illiquid instruments is one of the toughest challenges facing valuers of hedge fund portfolios, according to a third of respondents in a global survey of hedge fund investors, managers and service-providers. The research...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - UK capped indices from FTSE.
May 1, 2005... Concerns from pension fund trustees and investment managers at the growing weightings of large blue-chip stocks in major UK equity indices has prompted FTSE International, the global index provider, to launch a series of UK capped indices. ...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Commodities are paying dividends.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Rising crude oil prices have translated into positive returns for investors with exposure to the energy sector. But the volatility attached to energy and other commodities sectors is scaring most funds away from these investments. Those...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Volatility boosts FX trading.
May 1, 2005... Hedge funds and asset managers looking to capitalise on high market volatility are driving up global foreign exchange trading volumes, according to Greenwich Associates. The US research house attributed a 25 per cent increase in FX trading...

Comment: The Bender Agenda - No direct Access to UK.(Access Capital Partners)
May 1, 2005... Towards the top end of the Champs Elysees, nestled between the eclectic mix of patisseries, record shops and lingerie boutiques, close to the George V metro station, lies no. 73, a hub of Parisian private equity activity. The building,...

Asset Allocation: Portfolio flows - Yen unmoved by Chinese rumours.
May 1, 2005... In view of renewed pressure from the usual suspects on the political front (most notably, the Bush administration), speculation has risen anew that a long awaited shift in China's currency regime is imminent. Since April 15 the discount on...

Asset Allocation: Scheme spotlight - Manchester's search for diversity is on track.(Greater Manchester Pension Fund)
May 1, 2005... A steady influx of new members is posing ever tougher investment challenges for the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF), the largest local authority pension fund in the UK. The scheme, which has GBP7.3bn (e10.6bn) of assets under...

Asset Allocation: FTM Interview - Nicola Romito - Assembling the troops for a European institutional strike.(Interview)
May 1, 2005... Monte Paschi Asset Management (MPSAM) might not be the biggest investment house in the world, but the Milan and Dublin-based subsidiary of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world's oldest bank, has been beefing up its arsenal of products in...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Europe - Pace is perfect for stock- picking.
May 1, 2005... European stock markets are dull. The rate of economic growth is likely to slow, probably remaining at a lowly annual 1-2 per cent over the next few years; 3 per cent growth would be a welcome bonus. There is extensive price deflation around and...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - North America - Moving onto ever thinning ice.
May 1, 2005... Recently US bond and equity markets have remained volatile on mixed data in the US. For example, March home sales data showed the fastest rise in 11 years (bull); the next day US durable goods orders for March fell by 2.8 per cent, the largest...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - South America - A little volatility is no cause for alarm.
May 1, 2005... Sentiment toward Latin American markets is being buffeted by two competing influences. The first is the external environment that has clearly become far more challenging for the region. The second is the domestic economies where the news is far...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Asia Pacific - Buying back stock, paying dividends.
May 1, 2005... There is no shortage of issues for investors to consider in Asia these days. Political tensions have risen in the region, and economies continue to wrestle with fundamental concerns of higher dollar interest rates and firm energy prices....

Strategy Selection: Liability-driven Investment - Choice of liability matching routes is getting wider.(pension funds)
May 1, 2005... During the past decade pension funds and other institutional investors have been moving away from peer group comparisons and adopting scheme-specific benchmarks. For many, this move was the first step towards the implementation of...

Strategy Selection: Sub-advisory Uncovered - A way out of the middle ground.(UK insurance industry)
May 1, 2005... The paternalistic relationship between the UK insurer industry and its clients is no longer in existence. While this undoubtedly created the hugely successful savings culture experienced for many decades in the UK, and provided many individuals...

Strategy Selection: The Consulting Room - Clients demand US searches.
May 1, 2005... Institutional investors continue to scour the globe for sources of added return. According to data released by Mercer Investment Consulting, international equity mandates were the main focus of manager search activity in 2004. US equity...

Strategy Selection: LA City fund overhaul results in mandate offering.(Los Angeles)
May 1, 2005... The $8.2bn (E6.4bn) Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System (Lacers) is looking for candidates to manage a $175m mandate investing in US small-cap value equities, as part of a review of the fund's investment strategy. The fund is also...

Strategy Selection: Fund Forum - Fragmentation versus consolidation.
May 1, 2005... The need for institutional fund managers to have a clearly identifiable alpha proposition will fuel increasing specialisation and fragmentation of the global asset management industry, according to Wolfgang Mansfeld, executive board member at...

Special Report: Algorithmic Trading - Trend for algorithms grows in Europe.
May 1, 2005... Algorithmic trading - it might not trip off the tongue but it has been attracting increasing attention and could be on the verge of crossing into a glorious new era. With Progress Software Corporation's recent acquisition of Apama's ESP...

Special Report: Algorithmic Trading - trading costs can be shaved.
May 1, 2005... The use of algorithmic trading systems can result in lower trading costs compared with alternative trading methods used by the buy-side, according to new research. A survey by ITG, the agency broker, revealed that up to 11 basis points...

Sponsored Report: Algorithmic Trading - Aare a human's best friend.
May 1, 2005... Algorithmic trading seems to have become the must-have for the buy-side for 2005, with articles appearing in national mainstream newspapers and specialist publications. Algorithms are a sequence of rules designed to solve a problem: in the...

Sponsored Report: Algorithmic Trading - The Cubist approach to an execution strategy.
May 1, 2005... One of the challenges buy-side traders face is how to choose from a large number of execution strategies. The remarkable growth in algorithmic trading and the proliferation of different algorithms increased the challenge. Buy- side execution...

Sponsored Report: Algorithmic Trading - Uncomplicated paths to optimum performance.
May 1, 2005... With the expansion of algorithmic trading to the buyside, there are a number of potential pitfalls that an algorithm can fall into. It is important that users be kept aware of several problems - real or perceived - which can negatively affect...

Special Report: Global Tactical Asset Allocation - Strategy spreads as funds chase alpha.
May 1, 2005... European pension funds' search for strategies that can add alpha has led to a growing interest in global tactical asset allocation (GTAA), particularly in the past two years. Carolina Minio-Paluello, executive director and portfolio manager...

Sponsored Report: Global Tactical Asset Allocation - Evolution of a tactical approach continues.
May 1, 2005... Tactical asset allocation (TAA) has historically involved tactically increasing the exposure of an institutional portfolio - for instance, pension funds or insurance companies - to markets that the TAA manager's research indicates are...

Sponsored Report: Global Tactical Asset Allocation - The benefits of asset allocation overlays.
May 1, 2005... Beating a benchmark consistently is difficult, as the history of active management shows. However, asset allocation overlays seem to generate more consistent performance than typical long-only managers. So, why have asset allocation...

Performance Overview: Sparinvest plays it by the book.(Sparinvest Global Value )
May 1, 2005... The Sparinvest Global Value fund is a perfect example of how old-school value investing can be translated into positive investment returns. According to data from Standard & Poor's, this Luxembourg Sicav managed to be a top performer over three...

Support Services: Securities Services - JPMorgan tops back office league.(J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Luxembourg-based investment funds enjoyed net asset growth of 25 per cent during 2004, rising from $1199.7bn (e931bn) to $1500.3bn according to research by Fitzrovia International, a Lipper company. Alternative investments led the way with...

Support Services: Hedge Fund Administration - The price of partnership.
May 1, 2005... With subscriptions to hedge funds predicted to rise sharply, administrators of these alternative investments are bullish about their future business prospects. According to a white paper from consultancy Acito, Quirk & Casey published last...

Support Services: Feature - Path to Bermuda and beyond.(HSBC Holdings PLC management and acquisition of Bank of Bermuda Inc.,)
May 1, 2005... HSBC's acquisition of the Bank of Bermuda in 2003 has propelled its securities services arm closer to the big league players of custody and fund administration. The volume of alternative investments serviced by HSBC was increased by $88bn with...