Investment Adviser articles from July 2006

Investment Adviser archives from July 2006

Abbey builds on structured product foundations.
July 3, 2006... Abbey is set to use an investable property index fund to develop its structured product range. The Santander subsidiary's Financial Markets division, AFM, provided seed money for the Guernsey-listed FTSEpx fund, launched by MSS Capital,...

Transparency is key for platform charges.
July 3, 2006... The FSA has called for greater transparency of charges on wraps. Following a fact-find, the City watchdog ruled out introducing specific wrap regulation but claimed there was room for improvement on charge transparency and on the ease of...

Lazard shows its greenness.
July 3, 2006... The AGBP746.6m Lazard UK Alpha fund has the lowest carbon footprint of any mainstream UK investment fund. Environmental research company Trucost found huge discrepancies in the environmental performance, or carbon footprint, of different...

Expo finishes with a flourish.
July 3, 2006... Football, financial planning and tapping your friends up for business -" Financial Adviser Expo rounded off its roadshows with some punchy presentations. The London Olympia show kicked off with a keynote speech from Loretta Minghella, chief...

Multi-manager sales plummet over May.
July 3, 2006... Multi-manager sales saw a dramatic decline during May, according to IMA data. In a breakdown of multi-manager asset classes, net sales through IFAs of Active Managed funds of funds fell by more than half, from AGBP44.15m in April to...

Latin American falls leave few good buys.
July 3, 2006... Indiscriminate falls across all Latin American stocks are making it difficult for manager Will Landers to find quality bargains. Mr Landers, who manages the AGBP1.96bn Merrill Lynch International Investment Funds Latin American fund, said...

BSA accused of falsifying figures to rubbish CTFs.
July 3, 2006... The Children's Mutual has attacked claims made by the Building Societies Association that child trust funds are failing because parents favour cash. According to figures published by the BSA, cash-based CTFs account for 24 per cent of the...

Elite managers are increasingly scarce.
July 3, 2006... Finding fund managers who generate consistent superior performance by asset selection is proving increasingly difficult. A report from New Star Asset Management's fund of funds team said: "In the UK All Companies sector only one fund...

Risk-averse investors pull money out of equity funds.
July 3, 2006... Global bond funds are the only mainstream sector enjoying net inflows as investors shy away from risk. US-based fund data provider Emerging Portfolio Fund Research said for the week ending 21 June, investors globally withdrew AGBP3.8bn from...

Allfunds and Scot Friendly to sign up for Nucleus deal.
July 3, 2006... Allfunds and Scottish Friendly will provide the back-office services underpinning Nucleus, a new adviser-led wrap proposition. Nucleus is the result of a collaboration between wrap consultants David Ferguson and Philip Martin, seven...

JPMorgan signs outsourcing deal.
July 3, 2006... Threadneedle has entered an outsourcing deal with JPMorgan to handle all of its investment operations. Under the deal, Threadneedle's Swindon-based investment operations services centre will transfer to JPMorgan in October. The centre...

Europe takes fall as Insight fears for US.
July 3, 2006... Insight has moved to an underweight position in European stocks believing they are vulnerable to concerns about US growth. The company said interest rates looked set to rise further, and weakness in the dollar could have a negative impact...

Advisers judge funds by short-term results.
July 3, 2006... Short-term fund performance is driving retail sales, despite repeated warnings against using past performance as a guide to future returns. Daron Pearce, managing director and head of client management for fund managers at the Bank of New...

Iimia buys cheap holdings in heavily discounted funds.
July 3, 2006... Iimia's AGBP46m Growth & Income fund has swooped to take advantage of the rich pickings left behind after two months of sharply widening investment trust discounts. Richard Scott, who manages the fund of funds said he had about 60 per...

Invesco finds safety in large caps.
July 3, 2006... Leading UK fund manager Neil Woodford is sticking by the FTSE100, stating there is good value in large caps. The manager of the Invesco Perpetual AGBP3.178bn Income and AGBP5.48bn High Income funds is anxious there could be a further...

Poor Euro image hides opportunity.
July 3, 2006... Europe has a reputation as a corrupt, introspective, inept, idle and unproductive region, but Bedlam believes the image hides its prospects for strong returns. In its latest mid-quarterly market review, analysts at Bedlam Asset Management...

Artemis reaps benefit.
July 3, 2006... Artemis's UK Special Situations fund is attracting interest as advisers weigh up clients' options following changes to Fidelity's AGBP6.5bn Special Situations fund. Nick Wells, product development and communications director at Artemis,...

M&G Recovery fund makes inroads to its own recovery.
July 3, 2006... M&G is hoping to attract assets into its long-standing AGBP1.71bn Recovery fund with a substantial marketing push. Steve Brear, intermediary sales director for M&G, said advisers were re-evaluating options following announced changes to the...

Baring to enter UK multi-manager ring.
July 3, 2006... Baring Asset Management is readying a full-frontal assault on the UK multi-manager market. The company is set to confirm the application of distributor status to all or part of its 15-strong range of sterling-denominated, Dublin-listed...

Spec sits contenders.
July 3, 2006... Fund management companies are already gearing up for moving onto Fidelity's patch by promoting their own special situations funds heavily over the coming months. Some, such as Artemis, believe that an increase in assets under management...

Absolute returns win in the volatility battle.
July 3, 2006... Absolute return funds have beaten the odds over the past few months, despite the market turmoil in May. A number of absolute return-type funds hit the market during the last 12 months, all claiming the ability to outperform cash even in the...

New Star welcomes cash injection.
July 3, 2006... New Star's UK Special Situations fund has doubled in size this year, but the manager claims his style, rather than uncertainty over Fidelity Special Situations, is the reason. The fund, managed by James Ridgewell, rose from AGBP23.7m in...

Rathbone's energy shift brings reward.
July 3, 2006... The AGBP230m Rathbone Special Situations fund benefited from a steer into energy during the past year, said manager Carl Stick. Mr Stick said the decision to increase allocation to energy stocks, particularly fuel, has offset falls seen...

Bolton's successor to come from within, says Fidelity.
July 3, 2006... Fidelity International has admitted it will not look externally to replace star manager Anthony Bolton next year. The company said that its culture of internal promotion and recruitment would almost certainly mean that an existing Fidelity...

Government urges public to begin retirement savings.
July 3, 2006... The government has claimed people must take personal responsibility for their pension savings and not wait until a national savings scheme is introduced in 2012. James Purnell, the minister for pensions reform, said 4.5m people were not...

Loss of benefits to end work scheme.
July 3, 2006... Savers will stampede into personal retirement plans if the government agrees to the reduction of accrued benefits, according to Scottish Life. Steve Bee, head of pensions strategy for the company, said proposals to allow employers to cut...

Edinburgh dismisses concerns.
July 3, 2006... Although the AGBP141.5m Edinburgh Worldwide investment trust's strong first-quarter performance is unlikely to be repeated, the outlook is far from bleak. In particular, the company's board said, inflation-linked fears for the economy were...

Bankers adds performance focus to manager contracts.
July 3, 2006... The AGBP515.81m Bankers Investment trust has revised its management contract with Henderson in an attempt to ratchet up performance. Under the terms of the new contract, announced in the trust's interim report, the basic management charge...

Large caps the new focus for Hargreaves Lansdown.
July 3, 2006... The Hargreaves Lansdown multi-manager team has seen its underlying managers' holdings shift into large cap gear. According to Lee Gardhouse, head of multi-manager, many of his funds' holdings, including the AGBP3.18m Invesco Perpetual...

Allianz split cap trust not replaced.
July 3, 2006... Allianz Global Investors is unlikely to replace its split cap trust, claiming the demand for such products has diminished. The AGBP67.56m Allianz Dresdner Income Growth trust, launched in July 1998, had a fixed life to 30 June 2006. ...

Deal set to get IFAs online.
July 3, 2006... Fidelity FundsNetwork is piloting a deal with Colt Telecom to provide IFAs with a full technology support package. From a minimum of AGBP10 per person, each month, depending on what services the IFAs require, the FundsNetwork/Colt Telecom...

Staying one step ahead of fashion.
July 3, 2006... Stock market corrections provide ideal opportunities not only for investment but also for starting to write a column tipping funds, because the odds of picking winners soar. So, in an ideal world, where investors are cash rich and not...

Multi-tie advice business puts Intrinsic in the lead.
July 3, 2006... Intrinsic Financial Services, a multi-tie distribution and advice business, has launched after securing AGBP27.5m in investment and the services of 300 advisers. Last week the company, headed by former Zurich UK chief executive Sandy...

IFA demand leads to Aria tracker fund extension.
July 3, 2006... The offer period for the Aria Global Property Tracker fund has been extended. Product provider Product Innovations plans to keep the investment, which links returns to property companies in the US, Japan and Europe, until mid or late July....

Performance at risk from Bernanke bets.
July 3, 2006... Fund managers who take bets on interest rate moves will put their performance at risk, Stephen Snowden has claimed. The manager of the AGBP620m Old Mutual Corporate Bond fund said he preferred to make investment decisions based on...

Sipps to benefit from explosion in savings.
July 3, 2006... Sipps are set to become the beneficiaries of an anticipated AGBP240bn growth in personal pension over the next 10 years. UBS Asset Management's Pension Fund Indicators 2006 report claimed because people were working longer and delaying...

Axa set for new manager.
July 3, 2006... Axa Framlington has confirmed fund manager Nigel Thomas will hand over to reins of the AGBP63.2m UK Growth fund to a newly appointed manager this summer. Mr Thomas, who also manages the much larger Axa Framlington AGBP1bn UK Select...

America braves inflation waves.
July 3, 2006... Impressive corporate earnings and a slow-down in inflation will steer the US economy clear of recession, but cautious stock selection is still crucial. This is the claim of leading fund managers from Gartmore and Legg Mason. The...

HSBC opens range of new Asian funds.
July 3, 2006... HSBC Bank International is planning to tap into demand for investment in Asia and energy with a raft of new capital protected products. Its China Bonus, Asia Opportunity, Japan Growth and Energy Bonus funds will be available from 10 July...

Whittaker lays best ideas on the table.
July 3, 2006... New Star's Stephen Whittaker has unveiled some of his 10 best ideas which he thinks outshine all others in the UK market. Mr Whittaker, who has run the AGBP368.8m New Star UK Growth fund for four years, said he could identify a cluster of...

Yes, the split fund is going to be large -" but I can invest anywhere I like in the world, so I have a large pool in which to fish.
July 3, 2006... Investment Adviser: Who are you? What is your background? And how have you managed to win such an important mandate? There are over 500 managers and researchers at Fidelity -" how did you become cream of the crop? Jorma Korhonen: I am...

Tunnel vision.
July 3, 2006... That advisers are heavily influenced by short-term performance is an axiom along the same lines as "investors pile in at the top of the market": it would be much better if it were not true, but time after time it proves to be the rule that...

Europe funds' caution pays off.
July 3, 2006... European equity funds have taken a slide, but Baillie Gifford and Invesco Perpetual managers believe cautious stock-picking approaches will pay off. Invesco Perpetual's AGBP599m European Equity fund suffered in the first four months of the...

Calm water hides the iceberg beneath.
July 3, 2006... Investors hurried to take risk off the table during May. At first sight, this is peculiar. After all, global economic growth is robust, with a noticeable broadening out of activity from China and the US into Japan and more recently Europe, and...

Surviving during the investment cold war.
July 3, 2006... As anyone who has ever worked in a bond dealing room can testify, the bond market is an oasis of sobriety compared to the manic meandering of stocks. Not for the bond salesman, the hot tip or the alluring nugget of inside information is of...

Staring into a very murky crystal ball.
July 3, 2006... The Swiss do it, the Thais do it, even Indians with sighs do it. Let's do it -" let's increase rates. Sorry for traducing the spirit (and lyrics) of Cole Porter, but it does seem like a trend is sweeping the globe. After years in which...

Bolton recruits his Mini-Me.
July 3, 2006... Has nobody else noticed the striking resemblance between Anthony Bolton and new kid on the block Jorma Korhonen? It is all in the eyes according to the gang here at IA Towers. It has led Diary to ponder whether this influenced the decision...

Use CTF as bond for kids' damage.
July 3, 2006... Parents of teenagers across the UK are having to extend their home insurance policies due to their offspring's rowdiness and general lack of respect for the family home. Financial headaches are often endured, especially after unruly teenage...

Casson to up risk on Henderson Euro fund.
July 3, 2006... Paul Casson will raise market risk in his new role as manager of Henderson Global Investors' European Capital Growth fund. The former manager John Botham handed over the reins last week so he could concentrate on his institutional and...

Google watering hole not so tasty.
July 3, 2006... Franklin Templeton generously invited Diary to watch the latest stage of the ongoing international football gymkhana with some of the company's luminaries. Eagerly, Diary turned to Google maps to find out which of the City's many elegant...

Mundy points the football finger.
July 3, 2006... Fund managers often try to make their presentations more interesting by including football references, reckoned Investec's Alastair Mundy. Alastair was talking to IFAs at the London leg of our Expo last Tuesday, and still managed to pull a...

Beware false profits.
July 3, 2006... As the old adage goes: if something seems too good to be true then it probably is. This is the fate that has befallen with profits schemes which have attracted suspicion and criticism for making grand promises and yet falling short of the mark...

The global revolution is here to stay, so get used to it now.
July 3, 2006... When it comes to investment themes, the ability to speak to the best fund managers and so gain an excellent overview of investment themes across asset markets, asset classes, strategies and geography is a privilege. Themes that have pervaded...

The sun will come out...
July 3, 2006... The UK stock market experienced its sharpest drop in four years during May, with around AGBP90bn being wiped off the value of the FTSE100 in just a few weeks. The speed and ferocity of the decline, which saw the FTSE100 lose 400 points...

Things are not as bad as they seem.
July 3, 2006... The Federal Reserve and its new chairman are often in the news these days. Commentators and market participants are concerned over the new man's ability to handle the job and his credibility has been called into question. Sometimes no matter...

More production needed in the sack.
July 3, 2006... Japan may be enjoying a long overdue economic upsurge but this could be put under threat by a lack of coital relations among its citizens. "Japanese people simply aren't having sex," the director of the Japan Family Planning Association,...

Trekking off the beaten track.
July 3, 2006... Recent downside market volatility provides an opportune time to discuss exchange-traded funds and whether they do what they are supposed to, namely track their underlying index. A recent research paper identified that both changes in the...

Has that ship sailed already?
July 3, 2006... They say ignorance is bliss -" and for a time it was, for the countless of unsuspecting people who bought into with profits funds from the 1960s to the 1990s. In theory, it was simple. Every month, all the customer had to do was hand over a...

Investec loses big fish to River & Mercantile.
July 3, 2006... Investec has lost its UK Smaller Companies manager Daniel Hanbury to fledgling boutique River & Mercantile. Mr Hanbury, who managed the AGBP106.8m Investec UK Smaller Companies and AGBP30.5m Investec UK Alpha funds is to join Societe...

A veritable port in the storm.
July 3, 2006... What would we not give to have a crystal ball in which we could look to the future? We could see our future loves, six lottery numbers for Saturday and the performance of the markets from here to eternity. No longer would we ponder "property,...

Sector comment.
July 3, 2006... Some might say that the UK Gilt sector is about as much fun as watching Ukraine grind out a nil-nil draw with Switzerland in the World Cup. However, football is not a game that can be exclusively watched on TV, as when you are at a match...

Is it now time to move away from the safehouse that is UK gilts?
July 3, 2006... Gilts are experiencing unusual volatility and there are not one but three stories now affecting bond yields. First, the domestic question of interest rates as inflation nears 2 per cent. Second is the pensions demand for long-dated bonds and...

Get stuck in for the long haul.
July 3, 2006... The UK Gilt sector has been subject to a set of unusual market conditions in recent years that have de-coupled interest-rate patterns from their historic norms. Demand from pension and life funds for long-dated securities to match their...

What you see might not be what you really get.
July 3, 2006... It is no secret that the bond market is not performing as strongly as it could. But then, that could be understandable. In the same way that the sun cannot shine at night, bonds cannot expect to produce such dazzling results under the glorious...

NDF looks to widen range with property.
July 3, 2006... Structured product provider NDF is exploring the viability of property and commodities-linked plans. Antony Stack, head of structured products for NDF, said the market has been fairly concentrated on single index, predominantly FTSE-linked,...

Armitage pans fantasy rivals.
July 3, 2006... The World Cup is fast approaching its denouement. The preamble of the group stages is done and dusted and now every game is the last in the tournament for one of the teams involved. But it is not just Germany where excitement is reaching...

Millfield rebrands after sale.
July 3, 2006... IFA network Millfield is expected to be re-branded Bates Millfield following its acquisition by The Money Portal. TMP, which also owns IFA Bates Investment Services and discount broker Willis Owen, has agreed to pay AGBP10.6m for the assets...

Advisers polarise into Sipp and platform advocates.
July 3, 2006... The adviser market is polarising between those who recommend true self-invested personal pension schemes and those who favour a fund supermarket or insurer model. This is the conclusion reached by platform consultant Clive Waller and the...

Trust looks to real estate and health.
July 10, 2006... The London Asia Chinese Private Equity trust has invested AGBP6.9m in what it believes are three strong growth companies. The AGBP50m trust, launched earlier this year, has been putting inflows to work, with a AGBP1.9m investment in China...

Barclays says US investors may be ready to jump ship.
July 10, 2006... The US economy is at a crossroads, Haydn Davies, chief economist for Barclays Global Investors, believes. Mr Davies argued investors were becoming less sure of the outcome of interest rates, and the prospect of rising inflation and...

Managers expect new business levels to fall.
July 10, 2006... As equity markets have fallen sharply, so too have fund managers' expectations for drumming up business, research has found. Fund managers are pessimistic about the coming three months with an increase in the number of fund managers...

F&C finds strength in resilient blue-chips.
July 10, 2006... Global blue-chips have shone out as bright lights for income-seeking investors in the UK. While stocks across the FTSE All-Share and Alternative Investment Market have fallen almost indiscriminately over the past couple of months, there...

Tribunal outcome to stunt compensation.
July 10, 2006... Investors accepting compensation through the Financial Ombudsman Service may not be able to sue for additional sums above the cap, lawyers claim. Law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain said the outcome of an employment tribunal case could...

The time for Taiwan is nigh, says Neptune.
July 10, 2006... China bulls should stampede to Taiwan to catch the next growth wave, specialist fund managers believe. Shelley Kuhn, assistant manager of the AGBP5.6m Neptune China fund, and Jonathan Neill, manager of the AGBP58m Fabien Pictet Yellow Tiger...

Abbey releases its structured quartet.
July 10, 2006... Abbey has made good on its promise it made in May to make regular incursions into the structured product market with four new plans. The quartet are all capital guaranteed and linked to the FTSE100, Nikkei 225 and residential property. ...

Mandate change will not follow IO's PSigma rebrand.
July 10, 2006... Io's AGBP14.5m UK Income and Growth fund managers have promised there will be no mandate change as part of the fund's rebrand this month. Last week, the fund became PSigma UK Income and Growth, bringing it under the Psigma Investment...

Nucleus picks Bravura for new platform initiative.
July 10, 2006... Nucleus Financial Group has chosen an Australian technology company to provide the support for its new wrap. Last week, the financial services business announced it had selected Bravura, a supplier of wealth management applications and...

FVC gives Morgan Stanley's two latest products the nod.
July 10, 2006... Structured product specialists Future Value Consultants have given Morgan Stanley's latest products the proverbial thumbs-up, although there are concerns. The two capital protected FTSE100-based plans, Simple Growth 10 and Protected Growth...

Merrill Lynch adds India fund to its UK arsenal.
July 10, 2006... Merrill Lynch has launched its offshore India fund in the UK. The company gained a sterling share class and distributor status for the International Investments Sicav, making it tax-efficient and attractive to UK investors. The...

Bump in road hits SEC hedge rules.
July 10, 2006... The US Securities and Exchange Commission has suffered a hefty blow to its attempts to increase regulation of the hedge fund industry. Following a court ruling last month, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia...

Multi-manager scratches the itch.
July 10, 2006... The multi-manager market is growing and is continuously creating new opportunities for a variety of investors. It is also becoming a talking point among advisers who are debating the benefits and drawbacks of this approach. Multi-manager...

Trustnet unveils series of multi-manager reports.
July 10, 2006... Data provider Trustnet has launched a series of independent multi-manager sector reports. The first reports have been written by in-house analyst Martin Wood and cover the Cautious Managed, Europe ex UK, Global Growth, Technology &...

Large caps are the way forward.
July 10, 2006... Small caps may have been right tactically, but large caps are the structural long-term plays for manager Stephen Harker. Mr Harker, who took on the AGBP71.6m Societe Generale Japan CoreAlpha fund at the start of the year, has been a...

Japan and Continent set to outperform UK.
July 10, 2006... Japan and Continental Europe will fly the flag for returns this year, although Gartmore's multi-manager team is less bullish on the UK. Managers Bambos Hambi and Marcus Brookes said that while UK market valuations looked reasonably...