Fund Strategy articles from July 2009

Fund Strategy archives from July 2009

COMMENT: Better to suffer now than in the long term.
July 6, 2009... Daniel Ben-Ami, Editor Last week saw the publication of some of the scariest numbers so far in this recession. Britain suffered its worst quarterly fall in GDP since 1958: a year when Harold Macmillan was prime minister and the Soviet...

FSA criticised over Keydata move.
July 6, 2009... The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has defended its decision to place Keydata Investment Services into administration. As news emerged over #103m of missing assets in seven of Keydata's Secured Income Bond funds, the directors issued a...

Ignis plans to set up eight to 10 joint ventures.
July 6, 2009... Ignis Asset Management will press ahead with plans to create 8-10 joint ventures, despite terminating its Maia Capital Partners boutique last week. Jonathan Polin, the group's sales and marketing director, says another partnership will be...

Investor interest sees Neptune market fund.
July 6, 2009... Neptune Investment Management has begun marketing the Emerging Markets fund it launched in September owing to investor interest. Traditionally, Neptune allows a fund to build up a one-year track record before widely launching. However,...

IN BRIEF: Fidelity fund gets new share class.(Brief article)
July 6, 2009... Fidelity has added a retail share class to its European Equity fund, branded Europe Long Term Growth. The asset manager says the share class will give investors access to firms in Europe outside of Britain. Copyright: Centaur...

IN BRIEF: RLAM renames UK Growth Trust.(Brief article)
July 6, 2009... Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) has renamed its UK Strategic Growth Trust to UK Mid-Cap Growth Trust to reflect its investment objective. Leigh Himsworth has managed the fund since its launch in June 2006. RLAM says the name change allows...

IN BRIEF: Jubilee aims to enhance returns.(Brief article)
July 6, 2009... Jubilee Financial Products has launched a structured product offering enhanced returns on the FTSE 100. The Optimised Growth Plan offers investors three times index growth up to 50% return over five years, with the starting point the lowest...

IN BRIEF: Aberdeen closes Credit Suisse deal.(Brief article)
July 6, 2009... Aberdeen last week announced the final closing of its acquisition of certain fund management assets and businesses of Credit Suisse. Having closed the #297.6m deal, Aberdeen has #133.1 billion of assets under management. Aberdeen says Credit...

IN BRIEF: Madoff gets 150-year sentence.(Brief article)
July 6, 2009... Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for running a $65 billion (#40 billion) Ponzi scheme, according to reports. The former hedge fund manager, aged 71, is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison after being awarded the...

Virgin Money defends high charges.
July 6, 2009... Virgin Money has defended the 1% total expense ratio (TER) on its Index Tracker fund as more signs of a passive funds price war emerged last week. After the recent launch of several low-cost trackers from Vanguard UK, HSBC Global Asset...

Veritas hires specialist in boost to Asia team.
July 6, 2009... Veritas Asset Management has boosted its Asia team by hiring a manager to work alongside Ezra Sun. Raymond Foo, a former Asia specialist at Brevan Howard, will join the Asia team at Veritas as a senior analyst. He will be based in Hong...

IN BRIEF: Midas proposes funds merger.(Brief article)
July 6, 2009... Midas Capital has proposed merging the iimia Growth fund into the Miton Select Assets portfolio. Nick Greenwood, who will remain the lead manager of the fund, will be joined by Martin Gray. The fund will offer a retail and institutional share...

Leap in US jobless figure deals blow to market optimism.
July 6, 2009... A sharper than expected jump in unemployment in America may signal the end of the fragile optimism in markets, according to economists. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report last week showing that non-farm payroll employment...

Biggest GDP fall for half a century.
July 6, 2009... Britain's GDP suffered its greatest quarterly fall in 51 years in the first three months of 2009. The figure was revised down to 2.4% from the provisional estimate of 1.9%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). GDP is...

JPM multi-asset fund mirrors US vehicle.
July 6, 2009... JP Morgan Asset Management (JPM) has launched a multi-asset fund that targets a return of the one-month London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) plus 2.5% gross. The JPM Multi-Asset Income Oeic, managed by Michael Schoenhaut and Michael...

IN BRIEF: Dividend rises hit record low.(Brief article)
July 6, 2009... A record low number of companies increased their dividends during the second quarter of 2009, according to Standard & Poor's (S&P), the index provider. Of the 7,000 publicly owned companies that report dividend information to S&P's Dividend...

STRATEGY: Emerging markets could lift economy.
July 6, 2009... Investors who still view emerging markets as the ugly ducklings of the investment universe could be missing a trick as it is these markets that could lift the economy out of recession. Perceptions of "emerging markets" have come a long way...

TRENDS: Testing times for American market.
July 6, 2009... Falling house prices and the collapse of two car makers is not much to boast about but with a new president and an outward looking administration America's fortunes could be set to change. Given how much of what has been happening in...

ANALYSIS: How to delight glum pension savers.
July 6, 2009... An overhaul of pension investment planning is long overdue, and those given the task should look at how one Insight fund can bring cheer while traditional pension funds spread despair. Despair is about the only word one can use to...

Q&A: Searching for yield in a difficult environment.(Interview)
July 6, 2009... Iain Wells, co-manager of the Aegon UK Equity Income fund, speaks to Natalie Kenway. Q: Can you describe your investment strategy? How do you choose stocks? A: We operate as a team and have a strong process that has been running for...

FEATURE: Ballooning debt.
July 6, 2009... Questions are being raised about just how committed the Obama administration is to tackling its spiralling debt, with increasing yields leading to some market players suggesting that it could overwhelm demand, writes Tomas Hirst. The fact...

INVESTMENT TRUSTS: East is the new West for ton-up trust.
July 6, 2009... When the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust was launched 100 years ago, America's boom-time companies were its targets. Today its focus has switched to expanding non-western economies. The Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust is 100 years...

AFI: Aggressive index surges on rally.
July 6, 2009... The AFI Aggressive portfolio has had an impressive six months thanks to a surge in emerging markets, with funds from this sector making up seven of the 10 best-performing funds. The Adviser Fund Index (AFI) Aggressive portfolio has had an...

FoFs: Experience is key at Thames River.
July 6, 2009... As one funds of funds firm launched in 2007 winds down, another, Thames River Multi-Manager, is achieving #1m-a-day inflows. Its two co-heads have launched in "difficult" markets before. The fine dividing line between success and failure...

FOCUS: Ecclesiastical remains positive.
July 6, 2009... Unlike many of its green rivals, the boutique is bucking the trend with all of its six portfolios top quartile. The next challenge for the group is to improve its profile, writes James Smith. Critics of ethical funds usually point to...

Fund Manager's Diary: 25-31 May 2009.
July 6, 2009... Monday As always, I was up before my alarm this morning - preoccupied with the various macro indicators and news flow that emerged during the weekend. I arrived at the office ready for our weekly investment meeting, along with our...