Investment Adviser articles from November 2004

Investment Adviser archives from November 2004

F&C yet to reveal Oeic managers.
November 1, 2004... ADVISERS are still awaiting news on who will manage five of F&C Asset Management's retail Oeics. F&C is deciding whether Chris St John will continue to manage the AGBP72.9m F&C UK Smaller Companies fund, previously an Isis fund. Mr St...

MBOs to increase via VCT funds.
November 1, 2004... FUNDS raised by VCTs will increase the number of management buy-outs coming to market, according to accountant Moores Rowland. Robin Stevens, corporate finance partner at the company, said that while a number of venture capital trusts would...

New Star Property set to head for industrials.
November 1, 2004... The incoming manager on New Star's AGBP247.6m Property unit trust will shift money into industrial properties. Commercial property specialist Roger Dossett assumed management of the fund on 1 October. Mr Dossett was previously the...

Lipper buys Fitzrovia Internat'l.
November 1, 2004... Performance data provider Lipper has acquired Fitzrovia International, which specialises in analysis of fund charges. The deal was completed last month for an undisclosed sum. London-based Fitzrovia offers a range of services focusing...

Reputations are at stake in VCT battle -- Allenbridge.
November 1, 2004... The reputation of Framlington's small-cap team will be at stake with the launch of its Aim VCT, according to Allenbridge. In a report and review of the latest VCTs, investment consultant Allenbridge gave a positive outlook for Framlington's...

Election to hit gold price not markets: surveys.
November 1, 2004... The US election will have a negative effect on gold prices, but markets are unlikely to be greatly influenced by the result, research suggests. A study by the not-for-profit organisation CFA Institute, which represents 70,000 investment...

Interactive rolls out a ready-made Isa range.
November 1, 2004... Online financial services provider Interactive Investor has launched two ready-made Isas based on high-risk and specialist funds. The Hot Spots and Eastern & Emerging Promise Isas have been offered with charges of just 1 per cent. Both...

Man launch offers access to its AHL programme.
November 1, 2004... Man Investments has launched its AP Enhanced product which invests in redeemable structured guaranteed bonds. For the dollar and euro bond classes, the target medium term returns are 17 per cent to 19 per cent and between 14 per cent and 16...

Liontrust set to balance Lang with gilt trackers.
November 1, 2004... The Liontrust Distribution fund will use gilt index-tracking to compliment the equity element run by star manager Jeremy Lang. Liontrust has rejected the inclusion of corporate bonds within the fund, which is subject to Financial Services...

State of technology divides opinion.
November 1, 2004... Fund managers are at odds over prospects for technology, with some offering a bullish outlook while others remain negative. Hugh Grieves, manager of the AGBP71m SG Technology fund, said high oil prices have led to a belief technology stocks...

First State smaller cos VCT launch set.
November 1, 2004... FIRST State Investments is looking to launch a venture capital trust in January, building on its smaller companies expertise. According to the company, it is liaising with IFAs and VCT specialists to see what is required from a VCT...

Asia only regional DJ index to rise in October.
November 1, 2004... Global and Europe indices fell in October while Asia rose, preliminary results from Dow Jones show. Its figures also reveal that while the utilities sector posted the biggest gains in the US and worldwide, the healthcare sector was hardest...

McKinsey expects death knell for star managers.
November 1, 2004... The search for added value may mean the death of the star fund manager in the UK, according to a report. In the McKinsey sixth annual survey on the profitability of the European asset management industry, a noticeable upward trend in fund...

Alpha search set to drive alternative investments.
November 1, 2004... Structured products, hedge funds and other alternative investments will sharpen the competitive edge for fund managers. As the debate surrounding implications for using alternative investments to plug the various savings and pension gaps...

Distribution methods to grow sectors.
November 1, 2004... UK and Europe fund managers will need to explore new distribution methods to grow market share, according to the McKinsey report. As more fund of funds, multi-managers, wraps, platforms and fund supermarkets captured the eyes of investors...

Profit margins boosted in 2003.
November 1, 2004... THE storm has passed for fund management companies following an improvement in profitability margins over 2003. The sixth annual McKinsey report said 2003 may have been a turning point for companies in Europe and the UK as assets under...

Consumers on the slide says New Star's Evershed.
November 1, 2004... Patrick Evershed, manager of the AGBP126m New Star Select Opportunities fund, has moved out of some cyclical stocks. The manager believes people are living beyond their means and that the government will have to increase taxes and cut back...

Old Mut Dynamic may cut equities if US rallies.
November 1, 2004... Old Mutual's new addition, the Global Dynamic fund, may reduce its exposure to equities after a predicted rally, according to its manager. The AGBP77m fund, which launched in August, has a 44.6 per cent exposure to equities through...

Precipice bond cases at Whitechurch soar.
November 1, 2004... Precipice bond mis-selling complaints against Whitechurch Investment Services have increased as FSCS scrutiny has continued. The direct sales arm of Bristol-based IFA Whitechurch went into voluntary liquidation on 9 July after it had been...

Insinger set to combine funds into new Astute.
November 1, 2004... MANAGER of manager provider Insinger de Beaufort will combine an income fund with a fund of hedge funds in its new Astute Portfolio. The Astute portfolio will comprise both the Insinger de Beaufort income fund and fund of hedge funds. ...

Gartmore, Schroder for FundsNetwork.
November 1, 2004... NEWLY-launched funds of funds from Gartmore and Schroder have been added to the FundsNetwork supermarket platform. The four new Gartmore portfolios, managed by Bambos Hambi, have been added to the platform. These are the Gartmore Portfolio...

Outsourcing needs are a multi-manager boost.
November 1, 2004... TWO-thirds of IFAs have significantly upped their use of multi-manager products in the past year, according to Fidelity. Most respondents to the survey of IFAs, commissioned by Fidelity, said they were recommending multi-manager products to...

FoF construction too quant-based.
November 1, 2004... MULTI-managers are too reliant on quant processes to construct portfolios, according to US asset manager Vanguard. The Vanguard group constructs its active managed funds according to a multi-manager approach. Jeffrey Molitor, a...

End of year rally set for shares: Christows.
November 1, 2004... SHARES are poised for an end-of-year rally, says Henry Rising, Christows' chief strategist. Although Mr Rising, chief strategist of Christows' private client division, believed corporate profits growth would decelerate as global growth...

Marlborough sets bond launch date.
November 1, 2004... Marlborough Fund Managers' High Income Fixed Interest Bond fund will be available to advisers from 8 November. The offer period for the fund, which has appointed Aberdeen's Paul Reed as an external investment adviser, will close on 26...

Vanguard adds to range.
November 1, 2004... US ASSET management giant Vanguard has added two new funds to its Dublin range. Created specifically for the UK and European market, the US Discoveries and US Fundamental Value funds have an annual management charge of 75 basis points. ...

Standard looks to Brazil to hedge against the UK.
November 1, 2004... BRAZILIAN bonds and Hungarian telecoms are key to a diversified portfolio, according to Standard Life's Higher Income fund managers. Erlend Lochen, investment director at Standard Life, and co-manager with Andrew Sutherland on the...

UK small cos pair in overseas move.
November 1, 2004... Investment opportunities in domestically-oriented UK smaller companies are poor, according to some managers. Paul Jourdan, head of UK equities and manager of the AGBP36m First State British Smaller Companies fund, and Paul Cramp, manager of...

Oil and resources raise UK Growth.
November 1, 2004... Active bets in oil and resources have lifted Martin Currie's AGBP132.9m UK Growth fund this year, according to its co-manager. The fund's largest weighting was in resources, which accounted for 26.5 per cent of the portfolio, compared with...

Oil-led large-cap run is leaving Brough behind.
November 1, 2004... The manager of Schroder's UK Mid 250 fund has blamed recent poor sector performance on the run on large-caps. The AGBP823m fund was positioned 273 out of 336 funds over three months in the UK Equity sector (all data bid-to-bid, to 25...

Property launch from Arlington.
November 1, 2004... ARLINGTON Property Investors has launched a UK commercial property fund. The Arlington UK Balanced Property fund is the first from the company, which was formed in May through a merger between Arlington's fund management arm and Aberdeen...

Eiris: Islamic investing is set to grow.
November 1, 2004... THE scope for further growth in developing Islamic investments is considerable, according to a report by Eiris. Research by the Ethical Investment Research Services showed that with more than half of the UK's 1.8m Muslims aged under 25...

Morley divides world in equity restructure.
November 1, 2004... The restructuring at Morley has continued, with the US, UK, European and Global investment desks coming under the new research regime. The restructuring at Morley has been undertaken since the arrival of Katherine Garrett-Cox as chief...

Prospects for precious metals please Merrill.
November 1, 2004... An increase in the price volatility of precious metals and mining stocks has created opportunities, according to Merrill Lynch. Evy Hambro, manager on the MLIM natural resources team, said the prospects for good second-half earnings were...

Allianz rebrands and changes retail.
November 1, 2004... Allianz Dresdner Asset Management has rebranded as Allianz Global Investors, and revealed changes to its UK retail business. The brand was unveiled at the London Stock Exchange last Monday, where Joachim Faber, chief executive, spoke about...

Long-dated bonds boost Old Mutual.
November 1, 2004... Long-dated issues and investment grade bonds have pushed performance at Old Mutual, according to one of its fund managers. Stephen Snowden, manager of the AGBP175.4m Old Mutual Corporate Bond fund, said that longer-term issues had been...

Cripwell brings his US experience to Baring.
November 1, 2004... The former head of US equities at Insight and Morley is to join Baring Asset Management in order to bolster its US focus. Crispin Cripwell left Insight Investment Management in May and is set to join on Baring on 8 November. He will join...

Newton's Shelton is set to return to work.
November 1, 2004... Newton Investment Management has confirmed the return of Robert Shelton, its star fund manager paralysed in a car crash two years ago. He has yet to resume work for the company, owned by Mellon Financial, but according to Newton he is...

Kleinwort links covered warrants to hedge index.
November 1, 2004... Retail investors wanting to link their investments to hedge fund performance have a new covered warrant option. Investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is extending its covered warrant range, launching a tracker certificate linked to...

Reuters web launch gives IFAs access to Lipper data.
November 1, 2004... Reuters has launched a website for IFAs offering access to Lipper data and analysis on more than 14,000 funds. The site also gives access to Reuters' professional grade investment news. As well as gaining access to Lipper data on more...

Abbey puts intermediary consolidation plan to FSA.
November 1, 2004... CONSOLIDATION of funds run by Abbey for Intermediaries will impact on more than 100 Scottish Mutual, Scottish Provident and Abbey National funds. Proposals were handed to the Financial Services Authority last week for a restructuring of...

Uncertainty sees potentials ignored.
November 1, 2004... THE downturn in fortunes of focus and special situation funds has been linked to long-term economic uncertainty. Paul Carne, head of quantitative analysis at fund research company Forsyth Partners, said the poor performance of the funds was...

Make use of uncertainty over Kerry win: Knight.
November 1, 2004... A George Bush victory would benefit oil and defence stocks, while John Kerry would lift the alternative energy and medical technology sectors. This was the view of Gartmore's Gil Knight, on the eve of the US presidential election. Mr...

Standard unveils new Sipp's team.
November 1, 2004... STANDARD Life has unveiled the team of business partners that will help manage the investment of its new Sipp. The Edinburgh-based life office said it had chosen its self-invested personal pension partners on the strength of their...

Changes for Sipps to see inflows rise.
November 1, 2004... MILLIONS of pounds could flood into self-invested personal pension schemes in the next few months, a leading actuary has claimed. Andy Bell, director of actuarial and administration company AJ Bell, said many of his clients were...

Barclays' with profits trust suffers under regulatory changes and falling markets.
November 1, 2004... FALLING markets and regulatory changes hit Barclays' with profits trust this year, according to its chairman. Paul Seymour, chairman of the Jersey-based BGI Endowment Fund III, which invested in a range of traded with profits endowments...

Caledonia turns to private equity.
November 1, 2004... THE Caledonia investment trust will look to the underinvested private equity sector, according to one of its directors. John May, director of the AGBP850.1m Caledonia trust, said that about AGBP40m would be made available to back private...

Britannic Smaller shareholders clash over reconstruction ideas.
November 1, 2004... SHAREHOLDERS clashed over reconstruction proposals for the AGBP75.5m Britannic Smaller Companies, the board has reported. David Tucker, chairman of the trust, said its two key shareholders, arbitrageur Carrousel at 24.37 per cent and...

Lo predicts China-only fund rush.
November 1, 2004... Fidelity's China fund manager Patrick Lo believes his will be the first of many dedicated China funds in the UK. The Fidelity fund is the first to invest primarily in mainland China as opposed to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Speaking on a...

Answer is blowing in the wind for Ventus VCT.
November 1, 2004... Climate Change Capital will target community project wind farms for its Ventus VCT. The VCT will be managed by subsidiary investment manager Climate Change Advisory, which focuses on providing products and services to companies working to...

Needle and Britannic in hedge fund launches.
November 1, 2004... Threadneedle and Britannic are employing a number of investment strategies on new hedge funds. Threadneedle is set to launch a hedge fund of funds, understood to be called the Crescendo Hedge Fund of Funds, in conjunction with German hedge...

Pivotal to talk wraps at Face to Face event.
November 1, 2004... PIVOTAL will outline the implications for IFAs of wrap platform development at the Face to Face event on 16 November. Peter Smith, head of business development for Pivotal, will address an audience of IFAs to discuss wraps. He will...

Merrill to seek Ucits status next year.
November 1, 2004... Merrill Lynch is to apply for Ucits III status across its fund range in 2005. This will follow the launch of 45 sterling A-class shares on its Luxembourg-based Merrill Lynch International Investment Funds, set for next week. Tony...

A rising market helps the evolving Japan economy.
November 1, 2004... Investment Adviser: There have been several false dawns in Japan over the past 10 years. Every year we expect it to kick off and hope for something good to happen, but each year Japan disappoints. What are the negatives in the market -- the...

Putting your faith in the unknown.
November 1, 2004... Oil. Oil. Oil. That is pretty much all that the investment world seems to be worrying about these days. City wine bars are awash with earnest discussions about the future price of the commodity known as "black gold". This is particularly...

Taxing business and our patience.
November 1, 2004... At what stage does a supposedly sensible compliance regime for the oversight of financial services get grotesquely distorted? Some readers may well think that in the UK, we are already there. A Financial Times reader recently wrote to the...

Riding out the equity storm.
November 1, 2004... "The storm appears to have passed" according to business consultancy McKinsey's latest report on the profitability of European asset management (see page 9). And, if its predictions at the tail-end of 2002 were to be believed, just in the nick...

The currency game goes on.
November 1, 2004... Currencies are on the move again. Sterling has hit a nine-month low against the euro, while the dollar also hit an eight-month low against the single European currency. These shifts are less a vote of confidence in the euro than a sign of...

Make time for the one that got away.
November 1, 2004... Every now and again, a fund seems to slip through the net. One such is Rensburg's UK Select Growth trust. Unfortunately I cannot blame Rensburg for this as I had a conference call with Mark Hall the fund manager back in November 2002. ...

The other East.
November 1, 2004... Beneath headlines invoking the hoary old cliche of Eastern promise, columnists have been positively agog over the possibilities of investment in China for the past couple of years. Offering stellar growth rates, rocketing levels of industrial...

Isis FoF team sticks by UK Prime despite Felton's exit.
November 1, 2004... The fund of fund team at Isis is sticking with its holding in the Isis UK Prime fund, for the time being. The team will not immediately sell its holding despite the sudden departure of manager Mike Felton. Tom Caddick, an analyst who...

Putting the pieces of the Europe puzzle together.
November 1, 2004... The accession of 10 new members, mainly from central and Eastern Europe, to the European Union on 1 May was the culmination of a long process that began with the demise of communism and Soviet leadership around 1990. EU membership amounted to a...

Welcome guests at the party.
November 1, 2004... On 1 May, the European Union welcomed 10 new member countries and some 74.3m new citizens. The new members were Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus, and Malta. These new members face many...

Govt under fire after poor Isa figures.
November 1, 2004... Investment managers are calling on the government to help close the savings gap following the worst month for Isa investments. According to the Investment Management Association, AGBP23.5m worth of Isa redemptions in September underlined...

Ashcourt pension to give alternate option.
November 1, 2004... KENT-based Ashcourt Investment Advisers is waiving some asset sale fees held within its Sipp wrapper. Asset management company Ashcourt, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ashcourt Holdings, is launching a self-invested personal pension 1...

IFA It's a Knockout set to begin.
November 1, 2004... LEADING IFAs have signed up for a short, It's a Knockout-style fund selection competition. The three-month contest began on 13 October. It is based on Investment Adviser's year-long Fantasy Portfolio Challenge contest, sponsored by Ample....

In with the new.
November 1, 2004... On 1 May, the European Union increased its population by 75m (as at 2001, according to Eurostat), swelling the single economic area's ranks to 455m. But the 10 accession countries' size in economic terms carries much less weight, accounting for...

It's what happens next that is key.
November 1, 2004... On 1 May, the European Union grew from 15 to 25 members. At this time, the accession countries of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined the economic alliance. Incoming...

Just one of those phases.
November 1, 2004... Third-quarter earnings figures released from US companies, so far, have not been encouraging. Downgrades have outnumbered upgrades by 30 per cent, with the financial and technology sectors having seen the most negative revisions, followed by...

Income spurs jump in sector.
November 1, 2004... Assets in the Equity UK Income sector have increased by a fifth over the past year, indicating demand for income, rather than capital growth, is running high. Assets under management in the sector jumped 19.57 per cent to AGBP26.11bn as at...

Manager Comment - Neil Vernon.
November 1, 2004... I have been running this fund with chief executive Paul Harris since February 2003. I took responsibility for the fund six months ago. It has a team of five. We adopt a top-down approach to the management of the fund, and one of the key...

Mild rebound will follow mild recession.
November 1, 2004... The economic slowdown of 2000-02 in the US was less pronounced and of shorter duration than previous ones, with unemployment remaining below 7 per cent. But a mild recession has meant a correspondingly mild rebound. The corporate earnings...

Commercial property holdings aid Goy's fund.
November 1, 2004... The AGBP4.9m Goy Harris Cartwright High Income fund is one of the smaller finds in the S&P Equity United Kingdom Income sector. The fund, launched on 2 December 1999, has been run by Neil Vernon since February. The investment aim of the...

Different degrees of risk decide results.
November 1, 2004... Performance dispersion and low match ratings are aplenty in the Equity UK Income sector, which is dominated by a few funds and darlings of investors pouring in billions. Invesco Perpetual towers above most of the others in the Equity UK Income...

Premier bucks trend as it moves Oeics in-house.
November 1, 2004... PREMIER Fund Managers is bucking the outsourcing trend by bringing its specialist Oeic range in-house. Departing from its previous stance, wherein more specialist mandates used external investment advisers, Premier has decided to...

A case of one step beyond.
November 1, 2004... Six months ago, the European Union admitted 10 new member states -- the most it has ever accepted at any one time in its history. We divide these new EU member states into two groups: those on which one could focus for investment purposes --...

Time for sector to have a rest.
November 1, 2004... Equity income has been a winning investment theme since the bubble peaked at the start of the Millennium, but is it now running out of steam? Having beaten the All Companies sector by 11 per cent over the past three years and 3 per cent in the...

No gain, no fee for Japan fund.
November 1, 2004... Bedlam Asset Management launched its Japan fund on 18 October. This brings the Bedlam range to four funds. The fund's initial subscription ended on 29 November and began trading this week with a minimum AGBP3000 investment. The fund is a...

Covered calls are the way forward for capital growth.
November 1, 2004... By John Foster The Close Finsbury UK Gilt fund was launched on 20 October 2003 and is run by Ian Williams, chairman of Charteris Treasury Portfolio Managers. The AGBP13.9m fund's aim is to give a level of income with stability of...

Warning: you only light the fireworks.
November 1, 2004... Usually 5 November is a fun day, where children run around eating themselves sick on toffee apples and parkin pie, while their fathers rediscover their inner hunter, building fires and blowing things up. Harmless fun enjoyed by all? Yes, until...

High flyers blitz the sector.
November 1, 2004... By ashutosh kumar High volatility and high performance funds have cornered a major chunk of inflows into the Equity UK Income sector. Retail investors on an average ploughed in AGBP110.76m into the top 20 Equity Income funds over a...

It's not how you get there.
November 1, 2004... Getting to the ABI Financial Media Awards on Wednesday evening turned into a less than magical mystery tour for both Selestia and GE Life. A taxi carrying the fund supermarket's supremos turned up at another West End hotel, where the door staff...

Spreading the word of authority.
November 1, 2004... And finally, it was reported that four people a week are quitting the Financial Services Authority after being lured by higher-paid jobs within the private sector. The FSA is not worried about wiley fund managers pinching its staff so as to...

China rate rise is set to leave boom unscathed.
November 1, 2004... ONLY if China continued to raise rates quickly would sustained growth be questioned, according to fund managers. In a move which surprised markets, the People's Bank of China raised interest rates for the first time in nine years from 5.31...