Financial Times Mandate articles from May 2009

Financial Times Mandate archives from May 2009

Analysis: Funds-of-hedge funds are failing investors.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith Funds-of-hedge funds have been accused of breaching client trust and bringing into question the integrity of their entire business model. In an interview with FT Mandate, Nigel Blanshard, principal of fund-of-hedge...

In brief.
May 1, 2009... The flight by FTSE 100 pension funds out of equities and into bonds appears to be accelerating, according to research by defined benefit scheme consultants, Pension Capital Strategies (PCS). It found that the average pension scheme asset...

Analysis: Market analysis - Europe.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Marcus Svedberg The global financial crisis has hit emerging markets hard and eastern European countries are among the hardest hit. While the difficult situation has been well documented, two important factors have to some extent...

Analysis: EC must step up its hedge fund plans.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith The European Commission's draft directive on alternative investment fund managers does not go far enough in how it proposes to regulate the hedge fund industry. John Donohoe, CEO of hedge fund consultants, Carne...

Analysis: Market analysis - North America.
May 1, 2009... Byline: William H. Cunningham Examining the rubble of the global credit crisis, it seems clear that the US was in an economic crash in the fourth quarter of 2008, followed by a pile-up involving most major economies. Recent improved...

Analysis: ETF levels receive European boost.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson The global exchange traded fund (ETF) industry has seen its assets under management fall by only 0.5 per cent year to date. The MSCI World Index's assets fell by three per cent over the same time period. ...

Analysis: Market analysis - South America.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Floris Kleemans Latin America is known to be frequently subject to financial crises. Despite some problems, like in Ecuador, the region seems to be coping remarkably well with the current turmoil in financial markets. Although it...

Analysis: KBC first Belgian fund in ILS queue.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson The EU900m defined benefit KBC Pension Fund is considering an investment in insurance-linked securities (ILS). Edwin Meysmans, the director of the fund, said he had recently been in a meeting with Swiss...

Comment: Leader - Hedging bets on a responsible future.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith - Editor The hedge fund industry has awoken from a nightmare to find itself in a bad dream. While performance has improved slightly in 2009, investors are still running for the hills. Although capital redemptions have...

Comment: The Consulting Room - The upside to downside.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Lionel Martellini The formidable crisis that rocked the world's financial markets in 2008 painfully reminded us that alternative asset diversification is not necessarily a safe haven in highly troubled waters. One of the critical...

Comment: Technology - Complex thought processes.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow "Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?" (John Keats) Sore heads and hangovers still hanging around. Perhaps the morning after a mammoth cocktail...

Comment: Agenda - Working towards the greater good.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Yuri Bender Gilles Glicenstein, the cerebral head of asset management at French bank BNP Paribas who died recently, was an inspirational character. The use of third- party funds within investment mandates was a favourite topic of...

Comment: Soapbox - Should I stay or should I go?
May 1, 2009... Byline: David Butler Orcs have invaded Middle Earth. This green and pleasant land, where alternative investment managers once worked peaceably under the watchful gaze of the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) a good shepherd who...

Interview: The chief - Latin flourish.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson Around the world, private equity firms have been taking a battering. Years of spectacular growth and profits came to an abrupt halt when credit dried up in 2008, and few are predicting 2009 will be much better....

Interviews: Scheme Spotlight - Riding out adversity in the region.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow Belfast could have really done without March's flare-up of sectarian troubles within counties Armagh and Antrim, when in separate incidents a police officer and two British army soldiers were killed. Paramilitary...

Interview: In The Spotlight - Boomtime in Bahrain.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith Cash may not be king in Bahrain, but it enjoys an exalted status within the Kingdom's Social Insurance Organisation (SIO). "Today, cash is the most comfortable asset class to be in. I'd rather earn 1 per cent than...

Features: Strengthening Your Investment - Getting on the right road.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Henry Smith The passing of the hedge fund industry's annus horribilis has brought little cheer, with 2009 heaping more pain on battered players. Double-digit performance losses and massive client capital redemptions have seen total...

Strategies: Volatility Trading - Vim and vigour in variance swaps.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Ceri Jones Volatility trading has grown enormously over the last few years, driven by the scarcity of conventional alpha sources and investor hunger for a source of return that is negatively correlated to equities. As a term,...

Strategies: Sovereign Wealth Funds - SWFs will benefit from a sophisticated touch.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Richard Hemming Nobody expects that it is business as usual for the world's sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) after the massive losses they've sustained from high profile investments in global equities markets prior to September last...

Strategies: Private Equity - Private equity gets that sinking feeling.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Richard Hemming Private equity mandarins are putting on a brave front, claiming that nothing has changed in the wake of the credit crisis, but peer in more closely and it is clear that deal dynamics are changing. And one of the...

Business Excellence: Credit Default Swaps - Roundtable - The CDS Debate: Achieving synthesis.(Discussion)
May 1, 2009... Byline: Michelle Price The Roundtable Panel Michelle Price - Trading and technology editor, The Banker Kim Taylor - Managing director and president, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Clearing House Division Peter Axilrod - Managing...

Performance: Large Cap Blend Equity Funds - Fund Performance Overview - Playing the market.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Spencer Anderson Equity management was one of the worst jobs on the planet last year. While the origins of the crisis were not entirely equity-related, they proved to be one of the most vulnerable and volatile asset classes in...

Technology: Outsourcing Fund Administrator's Diary - Above and beyond.
May 1, 2009... An asset servicing company was traditionally brought on board by investment managers to handle labour-intensive administrative tasks such as net asset value calculation and fund accounting. By outsourcing such tasks, investment managers also...

Technology: European Trading Platforms - Scale and flexibility will rule the trade.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Nat Mankelow A work in progress, a job still not yet done, liquidity is an issue, or cracks beginning to emerge. All of these statements could accurately sum up the current state of Europe's fragmented equity trading venues, though...

Technology: Portfolio risk - Location location.
May 1, 2009... Byline: Ceri Jones One of the biggest risks facing any trader is execution risk the risk that market prices will move before your order is executed. This has escalated in the last two years as market volatility has hit new peaks, and as...