Financial Times Mandate articles from November 2004

Financial Times Mandate archives from November 2004

From the Editor: Hedge funds: saints or sinners?
November 1, 2004... Should hedge funds remain unregulated? The debate has been intensifying ever since the collapse of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in 1998 concentrated the minds of regulators and investors on the potential for such events to trigger a...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Real estate investment moves to centre stage.
November 1, 2004... Once viewed as a quirky "alternative" investment by many, real estate is increasingly being seen as a mainstream asset class, with institutional investors testing it out for the first time and new real estate vehicles coming on to the market....

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Cold shoulder for mortgaged-backed bonds.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Mortgage-backed bonds are being shunned by Scandinavian and Dutch investors on the grounds they are "too complex". Although the Danish pension fund ATP has announced an investment of up to E1bn in the securities, other northern European...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Long-short hedge funds lose some of their allure.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Worldwide investment in alternative asset classes is nearly 40 per cent higher than two years ago, but trends are changing. Most notably, proportionally less money is flowing into long-short hedge funds, the most widely used hedge fund...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Investment - Asset consultants opt for multi-manager route.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... UK consultant Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP) is the latest gamekeeper to turn poacher, embarking on a controversial move into the investment management market with the launch of a range of multi-manager funds. LCP's product, LCP Simplify, will...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - British balanced managers opt for international stocks.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... British balanced managers are shunning UK stocks, despite strong performance from the asset class during the third quarter of the year. UK equities are being dropped in favour of a more international spread within balanced pooled funds,...

News & Analysis: Strategies, Products & Mandates - Clients demand more tailored benchmarking.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Customised benchmarks are the strongest growth area for index provider Standard & Poor's, further proving that investors' strategies are becoming increasingly complex and bespoke. Christopher O'Brien, vice-president, marketing and sales,...

News & Analysis: Industry & People - ABN Amro throws in Dutch custody towel.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... ABN Amro has bowed out of the domestic custody business, selling its operations to one of the US custody vultures Citigroup. The US giant adds $243bn (e188bn) in assets to its existing $7500bn. An ABN Amro insider close to the deal admitted...

News & Analysis: Industry & People - Northern Trust ventures down high-alpha road.
November 1, 2004... Northern Trust's European multi-manager division has become the latest fund house to venture into high-alpha products. Alongside fund managers such as F&C Asset Management, Northern Trust Global Investments is attempting to meet pension fund...

News & Analysis: Industry & People - Kas Bank attributes results to growth of commission income.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... Kas Bank, the niche custodian that believes value added services will soon be as important as core services in terms of income streams, is putting its improved financial results down to growth in commission income. The Dutch bank announced...

Comment: The Bender Agenda - Old habits wither as middlemen lay down roots in Europe.
November 1, 2004... "Uninformed, unreceptive, inflexible and unwilling to give creative money managers a fighting chance." That is the view of typical asset management consultants, as laid down by the institutional business chief at an up-and- coming European fund...

Asset Allocation: The Chief - Conquering markets near and far.
November 1, 2004... F&C Asset Management has set its sights on becoming a leading manager of global tactical asset allocation (TAA) mandates in Europe. Following a headline-grabbing merger with Isis, which more than doubled total assets under management to...

Asset Allocation: Scheme Spotlight - Reslicing the Big Apple's asset allocation strategy.
November 1, 2004... Completed in 1915, the Municipal Building near the Brooklyn Bridge in downtown Manhattan remains one of the world's largest government buildings. Its impressive exterior and dated interior of long corridors and mismatched office furniture, are...

Asset Allocation: FTM Interview - Nathalie Boullefort-Fulconis - 'Euro effect' boosts Axa briefs.
November 1, 2004... Axa Investment Managers was among 21 fund houses to be awarded E16bn in investment mandates by the French Fonds de Reserve pour les Retraites (FRR) in April. The French-based fund manager, which runs E329bn of total assets, won three equity...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Europe - Resilience in the face of US woe.
November 1, 2004... European markets have continued to show impressive resilience at a time when some remain sceptical of their ability to withstand the knock-on effects of a more bearish US rates outlook. However, many of the widely expected US rate hikes have...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - North America - Complacency over 'ignorable' risks.
November 1, 2004... The near-term evaluation of equity market return prospects - or for returns of most assets, for that matter - tends to be dominated by the risk side of the equation. Risk drives market returns more in the near term, while underlying economics...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - South America - Export earnings, stability and reform.
November 1, 2004... The strong performance of Latin America in recent months has taken many investors by surprise. After a lacklustre performance for most of 2004, the MSCI Latin America index jumped 17 per cent in dollar terms over the third quarter with a range...

Asset Allocation: Market Analysis - Asia Pacific - Vulnerability to external factors.
November 1, 2004... Asia remains the world's strongest growing region and buoyant domestic savings translate into high regional liquidity. Following recovery in Japan, the US and Europe, external demand for regional exports is robust. However, domestic demand is...

Asset Allocation: Portfolio Flows - Chinese denials fuel 'change' rumours.
November 1, 2004... There have been a number of comments of late by Asian central bank officials (most recently by Joseph Yam of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Zeti Akhtar Aziz of the Malaysian central bank) indicating that no change should be expected in...

Asset Allocation: The Panel - Ireland's NPRF battling to stay up.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Irish National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) is up 3.3 per cent for the year to date, despite a dip of -1.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2004. The E10.7bn NPRF, established in April 2001 to provide partial funding of Ireland's...

Asset Allocation: The Panel - Californian teachers post good grades.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) announced in July its second consecutive year of positive performance with a 17.38 per cent return on investments for the 2003-04 financial year. Christopher Ailman, CalSTRS chief...

Asset Allocation: Mandate Analysis - Multi-faceted Morgan triumphs.
November 1, 2004... Morgan Stanley Investment Management has claimed top spot in FT Mandate's listing of underlying asset managers ranked by volume of reported business delegated to them by mult-managers over the last 12 months. Moving Morgan Stanley to first...

Strategy Selection: Open for Tender - Sweden's AP2 offers platter of global equity briefs.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2004... The Second Swedish National Pension Fund (AP2) is seeking between three and seven asset managers to run global equity portfolios. Each manager will be tasked to outperform the MSCI World Index (Swedish krona) by 3 per cent. The size of each...

Strategy Selection: Dream Team - Northern soul.
November 1, 2004... Facts and figures will only take you so far in the fund management business, smiles Tony Earnshaw, the congenial head of Northern Trust Global Investments' GBP1.7bn European multi-manager team. The human touch is what differentiates the firm's...

Strategy Selection: The Consulting Room - Switching to pooled swaps.
November 1, 2004... Plan sponsors, trustees, actuaries, investment consultants and asset managers are keenly aware of the need, in a low inflation/low return environment, to squeeze as much return as possible from the assets they are responsible for - the need to...

Special Report: Germany - Foreign firms applaud loosening structures.
November 1, 2004... For the German investment industry, 2004 has proved to be a seminal year. Not only has the government liberalised use of investment instruments by asset managers and introduced a hedge fund law, but the outsourcing of assets by insurers and...

Special Report: Germany - Shifting up a gear to provide for old age.
November 1, 2004... The German population possesses a sizeable volume of assets, a substantial proportion of which have been set aside for retirement. The promises of corporate pension schemes currently amount to more than E350bn; financial assets worth more than...

Special Report: Germany - Demand surging for exchange traded funds.
November 1, 2004... Since exchange traded funds (ETFs) first hit the European scene in April 2000 they have been slowly catching on in Germany. Traditionally conservative when it comes to investments, German institutions have begun to use ETFs for cash management....

Strategy Selection: Sub-advisory Uncovered - Keeping the bottom line up.
November 1, 2004... Read the most recent writings of Europe's foremost researchers and consultants and a common theme emerges - there is a new phenomenon sweeping Europe and it is called sub-advisory, outsourcing or white labelling. Behind this growth is the need...

Performance: Overview - Starpoint outshines its peers.
November 1, 2004... While its peers see-saw from highs to lows, the Luxembourg-based, German- advised DG Lux MM - I Starpoint fund has put in a consistent performance over the last five years. The global equity fund has generated returns of 6.62 per cent in the...

Special Report: Currency Trading - The expense of currency.
November 1, 2004... Every working day, the volume of deals done in foreign currency globally is a staggering $1200bn (e940bn). The transaction costs paid by pension funds for enacting currency deals range can from three basis points to a massive 30 basis points....

Special Report: Currency Trading - Cranking up pressure for liberalisation.
November 1, 2004... While the question of longevity, with respect to China's currency peg with the dollar, has always been seen as one of politics rather than economics, the limiting factor in this respect is inflation. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has...

Special Feature: Inflation-linked Bonds - Strength to strength.
November 1, 2004... Bearing in mind the old economic rule that supply is a good indication of demand, then the flurry of government issuance of inflation-linked bonds over the past few years well illustrates the renewed attraction of this asset class. The market...

Special Feature: Inflation-linked Bonds - Anticipating future rates of inflation.
November 1, 2004... The subject of the information content of real rates' yield curve has been discussed for many years, well before the introduction of inflation-linked bonds1. In the absence of inflation-linked market prices, long-term real rates were simply...

Support Services: Custody - Value added comes to fore.
November 1, 2004... With yet another custody operator - ABN Amro - throwing in the towel in recent weeks, pressure on margins in the securities services business is stronger than ever. Custodians are making so little money out of their core custody services...

Support Services: Technology - Streamlining to reduce costs.
November 1, 2004... After years of disappointing news regarding investment performance and reduced revenues for asset management firms, things are starting to look more promising for those involved in this industry. Increasing asset flows and growing...

Sponsored Feature: Globalisation Techniques - Ending the promoter's dilemma.
November 1, 2004... On October 1, 2004, Credit Agricole Investor Services implemented the first true cross-border globalisation structure, using Credit Agricole Investor Services' patented Cloning technique. This globalisation scheme is pioneered between an...