Financial Times Mandate articles from September 2008

Financial Times Mandate archives from September 2008

Analysis: Covered bonds could boost US mortgages.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow A series of summer initiatives designed to boost activity in the US covered bond market have already starting to make an impact. In the absence of dedicated covered bond legislation such as that which exists in the...

Analysis: State Street Index goes into red.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward The State Street Private Equity Index posted its first quarterly contraction of IRR growth during the second quarter for 2008, confirming that the ongoing financial crisis is starting to affect the valuations of...

Analysis: Market analysis - Europe.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Tom Beevers Surging food and fuel prices are pushing up the cost of living at the most rapid rate for decades around the world. In addition, rising costs in Asia (accelerating wages, raw material costs and transport costs) mean...

News in brief.
September 1, 2008... The Universities Superannuation Scheme the second largest pension fund in the UK, has committed $600m (425m) to Boston, MA-based buyout firm Constitution Capital Partners to invest in North American mid-market private equity funds and direct...

Analysis: Investec shifts funds to luxembourg.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Investec Asset Management re-domiciled the 26 sub-funds in its Global Strategy Fund range from Guernsey to Luxembourg on July 1, as part of its bid to take its brand to European institutional investors. The move...

Analysis: Market analysis - North America.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Andrew Tunks US equities have recently witnessed a remarkable turnaround, with investor sentiment enjoying the highest level of optimism in six years. As Euroland posted negative growth for the first time since its inception, the...

Analysis: Pioneer enters irish market.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith Pioneer Investments has announced its entry into the Irish institutional investment market, a move considered by many to be long overdue, given the firm's 10-year operational presence in Dublin. The springboard is...

Analysis: Market analysis - South America.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Raphael Kassin Government bond investors wouldn't be blamed if they chose to steer a wide path around Argentina, one of the worst sovereign debt performers this year, coupled with rumours of default swirling in the markets, an...

Analysis: Market analysis - Asia Pacific.
September 1, 2008... Byline: William Fong Six months ago, the global investor was worried about the weakness of the Western financial system, and its consequent damaging impact on G7 economies. As a result, investors pinned their hopes on a robust China and...

Analysis: Bonds rally.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Corporate bond managers have become cautiously bullish again - after getting caught out by central bank hawkishness over spring and summer. Investors are once again predicting loosening policy and a correction from...

Analysis: uk equities suffer global competition.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith The rapidly growing popularity of global equity mandates, particularly among UK pension funds, is contributing to a steady decline in the volume of UK equities under management. According to a recent survey by the UK's...

Comment: Leader - Alternatives being left on the shelf.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith - Editor Leafing through the latest asset management survey to land on my desk, my eyes scan the following sentence: "Once again, alternative asset classes and products are attracting wide interest among institutional...

Comment: The Consulting Room - Is the party over?
September 1, 2008... Byline: Ben Clissold Returns in emerging market equities have been exceptional over the last five years. Now investors are worrying that the party is over. In early 2003 global equity markets bottomed and the recovery started. From the...

Comment: The Bender Agenda - Getting SGAM back on the right track.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Yuri Bender - Editor in chief With rival banks busy slashing wage bills, Paris-based stalwart Societe Generale - recently battered by an alleged 5bn trading scandal - has started an autumn recruitment drive, hoping to boost new...

Comment: Soapbox - Taking a global approach.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Malcolm Kemp The management of equity portfolios is occurring increasingly on a "global" rather than a "regional" basis. Instead of splitting the portfolio into several sub-mandates that focus on individual countries or regions,...

Interviews: The chief - Embracing Greater China.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest After more than five years at Societe Generale Asset Management's joint venture in Shanghai, it is hardly surprising that newly promoted CEO, Asia Pacific Denis Lefranc's strategy has China at its heart. Now based in...

Interviews: FTM interview - The cautious way forward.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow Marino Valensise, chief investment officer at Baring Asset Management, gazes out of his London office and takes stock of his surroundings. Relatively new to the role - Michael Hughes' departure last summer left an...

Features: The new world order.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest This summer, all eyes have been on China. The country's flamboyant and costly Olympic Games were a demonstration of what China sees as its central position in the new millennium - a cultural and economic powerhouse set...

Cover story: Emerging market debt - An emerging source of alpha.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward With the MSCI World Index down 14 per cent for the year to the end of July, MSCI Emerging Markets Index down 16.4 per cent and the Lehman Aggregate up just 1.5 per cent, the 9 per cent return offered by emerging...

Cover story: Emerging market debt - Exposure to real assets.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward "Real estate is becoming a global asset class," says Alessandro Bronda. "Investors are increasingly seeking exposure to emerging markets, and the diversification has improved returns." Emerging markets, where...

Strategies: Hedge funds - The return of global macro.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Global macro managers, who once ran almost 40 per cent of hedge fund assets, have had it pretty bad the last 15 years. Half its market share has disappeared, and returns have been average since central banks went...

Strategies: Exchange-traded funds - ETF platform - A new route into the Gulf.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow With half of UK pension funds planning to increase their exposure to the Gulf region over the next three years*, the timing of Lyxor Asset Management's latest ETF launch appears to be well-timed. This summer Lyxor...

Strategies: Insurance assets - Insurers outsourcing their way to a profit.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith Pressure to generate greater earnings from asset holdings to compensate for poor underwriting profits is driving insurance companies to seek external investment expertise. According to David Lomas, head of financial...

Performance: UK large-cap equity - Fund performance overview - Taking the long view.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward The global banking sector got its first piece of good news for a very long time on July 16, when US giant Wells Fargo & Co announced better-than- expected Q2 earnings and a trend-bucking 10 per cent rise in its...

Asset servicing: Fund administration - The next generation of fund administrator.
September 1, 2008... Back in 1985, when the European Commission set out to create a single market in fund management across Europe, few people could have anticipated its three notable outcomes. The first one is the scale of recognition now accorded to the legal...

Asset servicing: Securities lending - Lending that has defied the crunch.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow According to an end of year review of the securities lending market, 2007 wasn't a total disaster for Northern Rock. The now government-owned bank managed to garner the title 'Security of the Year' in an industry...

Asset servicing: Securities lending - Restoring balance to securities lending.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Mark Payson The credit crisis has created an interesting set of circumstances for the securities lending industry. Market volatility and the Federal Reserve's easing policy have created an environment where healthy returns are...

Technology: Post-trade services - Nordic divisions highlight T2S frailties.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest There were few surprises in the letters that landed on Gertrude Tumpel- Gugerell's desk at the European Central Bank (ECB) on July 4. Clearstream and Euroclear, the largest of Europe's post-trade services providers,...

Technology: OTC derivatives - Alternative investment diary - Responding to demand.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Ronan Cossec Over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives play an integral role in many asset managers' investment strategies, enabling them either to meet hedging targets or boost the performance of their portfolios. Over the past few...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund administration - Introduction.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest - supplement editor The term globalisation is overused, but it is probably appropriate to apply it to the fund management industry in the twenty-first century. Here the fragmentation of the business away from its...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund administration - Asia- Pacific.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest Bounded in the west by the burgeoning economic superpower of India and in the East by Japan, with China filling in the middle, the Asia-Pacific region has long passed the point where it is a mere home to minor outposts...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund administration - Middle East and North Africa.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest With oil prices floating well in excess of $100 for many months, it is not difficult to see where the source of the capital backing the Middle East's financial services boom is coming from, but the skyscrapers sprouting...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund administration - Choice no longer based solely on cost.(Company overview)
September 1, 2008... With the core of its business based in the world's major growth markets, HSBC Securities Services has faced an enormous challenge in managing and sustaining its own expansion in line with the needs of its increasingly global client base. The...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund administration - Europe.(Company overview)
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Institutional fund administration in Europe has gradually centred upon Dublin and Luxembourg. Since the 1990s the emergence of Ucits (Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities) structures has...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund administration - The Americas.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest The received wisdom about US fund administrators is that they are all about size, that their main constituents are dollar investors in dollar-denominated assets and that the value added services provided by fund...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - International centres - Delaware.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow Nestled on the eastern seaboard of the United States, Delaware, the country's second smallest state, is considered the jurisdiction of choice for the vast majority of domestically-managed hedge funds, private equity...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Switzerland.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Elisa Trovato The new Swiss law, the Federal Act on Collective Investment Schemes (Cisa), which came into force on 1 January 2007, aims both to improve Switzerland's attractiveness for fund managers and reinforce the country's...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Luxembourg.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Elisa Trovato Luxembourg is undisputedly the domicile of choice for the cross-border distribution of investment funds: ranking first in Europe, with 2059bn of total assets under management (AUM). The Grand Duchy is also the largest...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Dublin.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith The creation of much-needed employment and the regeneration of a run-down docklands area were the chief motives for setting up an international financial services centre in Ireland's capital city of Dublin. Back in the...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Hong Kong.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Henry Smith A survey published in July by Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) revealed that the fund management industry in China's Special Administrative Region grew by a "record" 56.5 per cent from 2006 to reach...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Singapore.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Nat Mankelow When Pimco chose to set up an office away from its native US, its attentions turned to Singapore in which to base its Asian regional activities. That was late 1996 and over a decade on, Singapore's rebuilding process -...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Alternatives centres - Jersey.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward The rise of the offshore domiciles - and of the hedge fund industry - has had a profound effect on the funds business in Jersey and Guernsey. "The types of fund in these islands has changed over the past 20 years,...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Guernsey.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward "Say private equity to a lot of people and they would say Guernsey," says Paul Bratch, a Channel Islands-based director with consultancy firm Morse. For many, that reputation was sealed in May 2006 when LBO behemoth...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - An island story.(Company overview)
September 1, 2008... FT Mandate: What is BNP Paribas Securities Services' strategy for capitalising on the rapid growth in the number and size of alternative investment funds being domiciled in Jersey and Guernsey? Ross Youngs: The [Channel] Islands have...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - British Virgin Islands.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward The British Virgin Islands (BVI) represent perhaps the most conspicuous success story in terms of offshore mutual fund domiciliation. Well- established for company incorporation, the past few years have seen it reach...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Bermuda.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Although Bermuda is an acknowledged world leader as a domicile for captive insurers and catastrophe re-insurance, it missed the funds boat big-time - particularly when it came to hedge funds. Before that industry...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Cayman Islands.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward The Cayman Islands has become an international funds powerhouse since its Mutual Funds Law came into effect in 1993. Trillions of dollars are managed in three types of vehicle: there are 125 retail-focused Licensed...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Emerging centres - Mauritius.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward Mauritius's network of 30-plus tax treaties sets it apart from most offshore centres and has made it a key location for company formation, particularly into emerging Asian and African markets. A treaty with India...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Malta.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Elisa Trovato Malta's financial industry and its reputation as a hedge fund domicile took off when the small island state joined the European Union in May 2004. At the time, there were only four hedge funds, or professional...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Alternatives driving Malta's success story.
September 1, 2008... The number of investment funds domiciled in Malta in the first six months of the year grew by 42 per cent, according to figures published by the Malta Financial Services Authority at the end of June. The largest increase registered by far was...

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Dubai.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest Created by edict in September 2004, the Dubai International Financial Centre was designed from the start to be one of the pillars of the United Arab Emirates' drive to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons....

Special Supplement: Fund centres supplement - Fund domiciles - Bahrain.
September 1, 2008... Byline: Peter Guest The Kingdom of Bahrain has for centuries been a strategic location and throughout its history changed hands between the great civilisations of the Arabian Gulf. Sitting off the east coast of Saudi Arabia and north of...