Investment Adviser articles from November 2005

Investment Adviser archives from November 2005

Close brands stampede a load of bull.
November 14, 2005... Close Fund Management has launched a full-tilt attack on the stampede to launch total return funds. Managing director Marc Gordon said there was far too much uncertainty about investment strategies on total return funds and in particular...

Troy lures Keattch after DWS sale.
November 14, 2005... Boutique investment company Troy Asset Management is hoping to establish new funds with the appointment of former DWS European fund manager Ruth Keattch Ms Keattch, who was made redundant from DWS after its purchase by Aberdeen, will join...

RLAM joins others in publishing voting records.
November 14, 2005... Royal London Asset Management is joining the flock of financial services companies which are to publish their voting records. Chief investment officer Robert Talbut said RLAM was in the advanced stages of finalising its procedure. His...

US being impeded by Fed.
November 14, 2005... Investment guru Bill Miller has railed at the Federal Reserve for preventing the US participating in the global rally. Mr Miller, chief investment officer for Legg Mason Capital Management, wrote to shareholders this month and bewailed the...

Fund of hedge funds is set for December.
November 14, 2005... An open-ended fund of hedge funds is to be launched and marketed to IFAs from 1 December. Structured as a protected plan, the fund from hedge fund research specialist Fortune is a mirror version of its fund of hedge funds, Market Wizard....

sector comment.
November 14, 2005... Comparisons are something we do all the time -- be it buying a house or a pair of knickers. And why should fund management be any different? The human mind seeks to compare because it obviously seeks the best. But, sadly, there is no such...

Consolidator takes group.
November 14, 2005... Fund house consolidator Syndicate Asset Management has bought out another small asset management company. Cambridge-based Chartwell House Group has been taken over by Sam, bringing the latter's assets under management to more than...

JPMorgan restructures its Europe Select Equity team.
November 14, 2005... JPMorgan Asset Management has reshuffled its European desk after manager Robert Machell left last week. Patrick Vermeulen has replaced Mr Machell as lead manager on the AGBP7.9m Europe Select Equity fund. The fund, which had been given...

IMA reveals multi figures.
November 14, 2005... Advisers will be able to see the total breakdown of multi-manager sales for the first time, thanks to new IMA data. The Investment Management Association has always known how much money was flowing through the channel, as well as into...

Morant's yield based Japan fund responds to demand.
November 14, 2005... Increasing demand for yield-based income motivated the launch of the Morant Wright Japan Income trust, according to the company. The Guernsey-based trust will have a very similar portfolio to MW's other Japan funds, which concentrate on...

Japan's corporate earnings keep Threadneedle happy.
November 14, 2005... Japan is still a key play for Threadneedle as the company spots strong corporate earnings growth coming through. Threadneedle has an overweight strategy to the country, with GDP growth predicted to be 2.75 per cent compared with a consensus...

Invesco small cap piles in on float day.
November 14, 2005... Invesco Perpetual's small cap manager Richard Smith was one of the first to buy into New Star on its first day of trading. New Star Asset Management, which completed its float on the Alternative Investment Market last Friday, saw its share...

Barclays to offer IFAs CTF.
November 14, 2005... Barclays is to make its CPPI-based child trust fund account available through financial advisers. The structured fund offers up to 70 per cent of the performance of the index during that period and guarantees to lock in 80 per cent of its...

FSA fails to have Sipp regulation prepared.
November 14, 2005... The FSA will not be ready with a regulatory policy on Sipps for some time after their introduction, the FSA has admitted. Testifying before the Treasury Select Committee, chairman Callum McCarthy said this was unavoidable, because Treasury...

Hedge funds do not have global impact.
November 14, 2005... The UK's leading hedge fund researcher has claimed few hedge funds have the capacity to disrupt global markets. According to the BNP Paribas sponsored Hedge Fund Centre at London Business School, market activity from hedge fund is unlikely...

Opus Global Growth goes for insurance.
November 14, 2005... Investing in global insurance stocks is the best policy for the manager of the AGBP170m Odey's Opus Global Growth fund. Crispin Odey said he was bullish about insurance stocks, because he expected interest rates to rise globally. These...

High yield beats corporate bonds.
November 14, 2005... High yield is more attractive than corporate bonds in this low-yield environment, claim the managers of Invesco's AGBP128.8m Distribution fund. Paul Causer and Paul Read, who share an AAA-rating from Citywire, have moved up the yield curve...

Equity funds thankful that October is over, says Lipper.
November 14, 2005... UK investors should be breathing a massive sigh of relief after October, according to Lipper. In a report on the asset management industry, it said that in that month only two out of 71 equity fund categories managed to make any money,...

Level playing field called for by AITC.
November 14, 2005... There is set to be further distortion in the tax treatment of bond fund income for Oeics and investment trusts, the AITC has claimed. At present investment trusts do not invest in bonds as they are forced to pay more tax on bond fund income...

Advisers face censure over multi differences.
November 14, 2005... The threat of regulatory censure hangs above multi-manager funds, a specialist financial consultant has claimed. Yorkshire-based Rayner Spencer Mills has produced a report that claimed some fundamental differences in funds are being...

Income fund added to 7IM's Oeic range.
November 14, 2005... Seven Investment Management is expanding its IFA and financial planner Oeic range with a new Income fund. It will target a cautious yield of 4 per cent a year. This makes up the bulk of the fund's return. Portions of the CF 7IM Income...

Veritas drinks to its Global success.
November 14, 2005... Veritas is keeping its investors' spirits up with Smirnoff, Johnnie Walkers and Baileys. The boutique asset management house is due to bring retail share classes to three of its funds this year, including the AGBP10.4m Global Income fund....

IMS's buy-out of MM gets the nod.
November 14, 2005... Investment Manager Selection has received regulatory approval for its buy-out of specialist multi-manager of Asset Management from Threadneedle. The takeover brings IMS' total assets under management to more than AGBP3.8bn. Although...

Rate freeze shows UK strength.
November 14, 2005... Despite retail sector pain, the economy is robust enough to justify keeping rates on hold, say fund house strategists. Tony Dolphin, director of economics and strategy for Henderson, said the economy had been helped recently by healthier...

Cheer from US small cap worry.
November 14, 2005... US small-cap managers are looking to feed off persistent anxieties in the market over rising inflation and interest rates. Chris Jones, manager of the AGBP96.5m JPMF US Discovery trust, said anxiety in the market was encouraging for fund...

Performance.
November 14, 2005... SW Cautious Portfolio A The AGBP257.6m Scottish Widows Cautious Portfolio fund has been a strong performer over the past year. It is the best global bond fund in Trustnet's UK equity and bond sector as well as ninth out of 46 funds in...

Grant arm to join Principal's stable.
November 14, 2005... Principal Investment Management has increased its assets under management to AGBP800m following the acquisition of Grant Thornton's asset management arm. Independent Kent-based portfolio management specialist Principal will take on GTAM's...

Baillie finds friend in the Netherlands.
November 14, 2005... The Netherlands is proving to be a valuable source of returns for Baillie Gifford. The AGBP80.1m Baillie Gifford European Smaller Companies fund has 25 per cent of its portfolio invested in Dutch businesses. These include the fund's top...

UK telecoms boosts SGAM.
November 14, 2005... Activity in the UK telecoms sector has rung up returns for the SGAM UK equity team. Over the past couple of weeks, the major mobile phone service provider O2 agreed a AGBP17.7bn cash offer from Spain's large-cap telecoms company...

European equities alter Axa's forecast.
November 14, 2005... European equities are still under downward pressure, a report from Axa Investment Managers has claimed. Economist Laurence Chieze-Devivier said the company had downgraded its growth forecast for next year based on the negative impact of oil...

Trio discounted by Schroder in the run-up to Christmas.
November 14, 2005... Schroder has reduced the initial charge on three of its multi-manager portfolios until the end of this year. The sale applies to its S&P AGBP5.7m High Alpha, AGBP44.4m Strategic Balanced and AGBP6.2m Cautious Managed Distribution...

Acencia set for FoHF launch.
November 14, 2005... Acencia Funds, part of alternative fund manager Saltus Partners, is to launch a UK quoted fund of hedge funds that will pay a dividend. The Acencia Debt Strategies Limited fund will launch on 18 November and invest in predominantly...

M&A activity helps restore Merrill's UK Income fund.
November 14, 2005... Continuing merger and acquisition activity helped shore up the AGBP386m Merrill Lynch UK Income fund over a poor third quarter. Equity income funds settled into negative territory over the past three months, with the 81-strong IMA sector...

Bond funds shore up against interest rates.
November 14, 2005... Bond fund managers are structuring portfolios against uncertainty in the European market as interest rates hang in the balance. According to James Foster, manager of the AGBP20.4m Artemis Strategic Bond fund, commentators who predicted a...

New CSAM man opts for defensive growth.
November 14, 2005... Defensive growth stocks are the order of the day for the new manager of Credit Suisse's equity income funds. With Leigh Harrison making his way to Threadneedle as head of UK retail, his former deputy on the Income funds Errol Francis has...

Credit derivatives bolster bond funds.
November 14, 2005... Corporate bond markets have received a fillip in Europe and the UK by growing use of financial instruments to protect portfolios against downside risk. Research by Fidelity International revealed increased use of credit derivatives had...

Shares beat bonds despite similarities.
November 14, 2005... Standard Life Investments believes equities represent better value than bonds, despite their increasingly similar characteristics. SLI's global strategist Frances Hudson, said the ability of equities to generate better long-term returns...

Focus should not be on commodity rises.
November 14, 2005... Investors should not be side-tracked by rising commodity prices into heading indiscriminately into resources stocks, First State has claimed. David Whitten, head of global resources for the asset manager and manager of the Global Resources...

Hotch-potch sectors need review.
November 14, 2005... Leading IFAs are pressing the Investment Management Association to review its UK Other Bond, Corporate Bond and All Companies sector classifications. Chelsea Financial Services is pushing for the IMA to make it easier to compare...

Kids would benefit from a bit more risk.
November 14, 2005... Parents are costing their children money by being overly cautious in their savings decisions, a survey by JPMorgan Asset Management has claimed. Two-thirds of parents put aside money for their children, but almost 50 per cent are opting...

High oil prices act as drag on UK economic growth.
November 14, 2005... Consistently high oil prices are set to continue dragging on UK economic growth, according to Insight Investment. In his latest newsletter, head of asset allocation Philip Barleggs cited this as the chief reason the investment house was...

Confidence in China takes a hit.
November 14, 2005... Weak state companies eating up cash from the market, together with slipshod management, are combining to make China less attractive to fund managers. Research published by the China Securities Industry Association last week revealed that...

Asian Tigers still a good long-term bet.
November 14, 2005... Asia is still an attractive long-term investment target despite its already strong run, according to Baring Asset Management. The company expects the four Tiger economies -- Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan -- in particular to provide...

Special Sits vie for the king's crown.
November 14, 2005... I predict special situations funds will get considerably more coverage in 2006 than in virtually all the past few years put together. Why? Simply put they are after the king's crown and if you do not know what I am talking about, you must have...

Batterymarch set to charge on Asia.
November 14, 2005... The hunt for growth stocks in Asia is heating up, leaving the managers at Batterymarch searching harder for the long-term winners. Batterymarch, which runs the AGBP4.6m Legg Mason Asia Pacific fund, has noticed a flurry of investment into...

October fall-out will be limited.
November 14, 2005... The fall-out from corrections in major world markets at the end of October will be limited, according to Andy Brunner of Forsyth Partners. He noted that this year's October effect, where markets have historically suffered some sort of...

Manager caution on retail sales figures.
November 14, 2005... Despite a positive month for consumer spending, fund managers at Neptune and Cazenove are still cautious on prospects for the consumer. Last week, building society Nationwide reported that its consumer spending index was up for October,...

Lowland starts to rate Japan highly.
November 14, 2005... The AGBP234.4m Lowland trust is looking to invest in Japan as sustainable signs of a recovery persist in the country. James Henderson, manager of the trust at Henderson, said the trust has increased its gearing by AGBP9m after spotting key...

Aberdeen trust gears up for India.
November 14, 2005... Aberdeen's New India investment trust board directors are negotiating a new bank facility to allow it to use gearing. The AGBP59.75m trust is not geared at the moment, although it has a mandate to gear up to 25 per cent of the fund's assets...

New tables get initial approval.
November 14, 2005... The pensions industry has until the end of this year to challenge the Government Actuary's Department on post-retirement benefits. Its response to the GAD consultation on proposed new tables to determine the annual limits for unsecured and...

Residential property for your Sipp should be avoided by all but financially secure.
November 14, 2005... Only financially secure Sipp investors should consider investing in residential property after A-Day, according to actuaries. Alan Goodman, chairman of its Financial Consumer Support Committee, said: "We have identified important reasons...

New Star fund finds Hidden Value in technology stocks.
November 14, 2005... Positive company earnings over the third quarter helped keep New Star's AGBP34.5m Hidden Value fund at the top of its sector. The fund, managed by Jamie Allsopp, benefited from strong corporate announcements from technology companies at the...

Hunter opts to go solo.
November 14, 2005... David Hunter, formerly at Arlington Property Investors, has set up his own company called Hunter Advisers. The company will provide advice for companies launching property funds on the raising and structuring of these funds. It will...

IFAs to shift most business to wrap.
November 14, 2005... More than 70 per cent of advisers believe the majority of their business will be held on wrap platforms in two years' time, a new survey has claimed. The online survey by wrap consullory Adnitor, was featured on Adnitor's Which? Platforms...

Aberdeen promises inheritance portfolio.
November 14, 2005... Aberdeen Asset Management is to launch an inheritance tax portfolio by the end of the year. The Aim IHT/EIS Service portfolio will target both Alternative Investment Market and pre-Aim stocks. It is designed for IFAs who require...

Hedged bets.
November 14, 2005... Hedged bets The Financial Services Authority is keeping tabs on 25 London-based hedge fund heavyweights. The City watchdog has declined to name names, but it is to be guessed the 25 can feel its eye bore into them from atop its Docklands...

Falling markets and rising retail prices.
November 14, 2005... According to the office of National Statistics, using the Consumer Price Index -- the Bank of England's preferred target measure of inflation -- prices have risen by 13.6 per cent since 1996. With household income having gone up by more...

The absurd task of writing on markets.
November 14, 2005... To an extent, trying to write sensibly about markets on a remotely regular basis is an absurd endeavour. Not that there is any shortage of City analysts, economists, strategists and journalists supplying investors with their daily, weekly and...

Global trusts under pressure.
November 14, 2005... Investors and analysts will press global trusts to follow the example set by F&C in adopting a rigid discount control mechanism, according to experts. The largest trust in the sector, the AGBP2.6bn Foreign & Colonial Global Growth trust,...

No light yet at the end of the tunnel.
November 14, 2005... Government bond markets seem to have made a decisive move. US 10-year Treasury bond yields have spent much of the year, trading in a range of 3.9 per cent to 4.6 per cent. Investors could reliably make money by selling when yields fell below 4...

Vive La France!
November 14, 2005... Vive La Revolution -- Allez La France! As the cities of France burn in Bastille style celebration -- Diary thinks, unlike the British and their Guy Fawkes night, the French do not do things by half measures. It seems that Les Miserables are...

Kafka gets in touch.
November 14, 2005... Diary has a fairly slanted view of the world and has quite an open mind, but Kafka emailed Diary. No not the world-famous Bohemian author, Franz Kafka, who died in 1924, as that would be emails from beyond the grave. No, we were emailed by...

VCT investment should be sooner rather than later.
November 14, 2005... A leading IFA has urged investors not to leave investing in a VCT until the last minute. Chelsea Financial Services said that while investors may have up to the end of the tax year to invest in VCTs -- while the 40 per cent income tax...

On the margin.
November 14, 2005... Managed futures, also known as commodity trade advisers, are playing a growing role in diversified portfolios, as investors turn to them to reduce investment risk in their portfolios. Global assets under management in managed futures have...

A hard nut to crack.
November 14, 2005... Talk to any investment professional today and one subject that is likely to arise is the increase in short-term market volatility. While overall market volatility is at historic lows, there is a perception that the market reacts much more...

A fresh look...
November 14, 2005... The zero dividend preference shares sector continues to thrive. For those fund managers who target high quality zeros and similar instruments, planned roll-overs of split capital investment trusts and the emergence of new types of zeros not...

Complex strategies.
November 14, 2005... A frequently expressed view is that hedge funds are risky and, although investors may earn significant returns, they are at high risk of losing a significant portion of their capital. In addition, hedge funds are seen to have high fees, high...

Removal of RU64 welcomed by financial advice industry.
November 14, 2005... Aifa has lauded the FSA for releasing its members from the RU64 requirements when recommending pension products. In a consultation paper on personal pensions advice, the FSA removed the RU64 rule that requires advisers to explain why...

The long and short of it.
November 14, 2005... For most investors in the UK, hedge fund investments will take the form of a fund of hedge funds. This approach hands over the responsibility for putting together a portfolio of hedge funds to a professional manager, who selects an appropriate...

Hedging your bets.
November 14, 2005... Hedge funds and their strategies are not easy to define. The term hedge fund covers a vast range of styles, investing in every asset type and strategy, involving every risk level in the investment universe. In many ways, the only...

Source of contention.
November 14, 2005... In the UK, the financial services industry has always been leagues ahead in outsourcing and offshoring. Most of the mega deals at the start of the outsourcing revolution involved financial services companies. Realising the benefits of...

Revenue investigates discount trusts.
November 14, 2005... The Inland Revenue is investigating discounted trust schemes over the taxation of regular payments. According to Scottish Provident International, at least one discounted gift scheme is under scrutiny, although the Revenue would not...

Which way now for hedge funds?
November 14, 2005... The Financial Services Authority is giving its most serious consideration yet to extending the use and availability of hedge funds for retail investors. Responses to the regulator's consultation papers on hedge funds were due in by the end of...

Why being small can actually appear larger than life.
November 14, 2005... The last three years for the top 25 funds -- by total return -- in the UK All Companies sector have been more than fruitful, with fund manager outperformance eye-popping. Small and mid-cap stocks have been the main source of the kill and...

Gartmore left in lurch as top manager heads north.
November 14, 2005... Gartmore has lost its top-performing bond manager Alix Stewart to Scottish Widows Investment Partnership. In a departure which stunned IFAs such as Hargreaves Lansdowne, Bates and Chelsea Financial Services, Ms Stewart announced she was...

Funds from the US and a snag.
November 14, 2005... T he new Investment Adviser statistics show that the winning styles for investing in UK equities over the past three years were value rather than growth and small rather than large. Do I think they will continue to perform, let alone...

Manager steers fund to happier grounds.
November 14, 2005... Tim Steer, manager of the AGBP268m New Star UK Alpha fund, has bulked up exposure to large-cap stocks, as he believes the FTSE 250 is now a less attractive hunting ground. Over the past 12 months Mr Steer has increased the fund's large-cap...

Webb looks to net talent for long term.
November 14, 2005... Now is not the time for Unicorn Asset Management to make changes to strategy, according to the company. Despite reports that Peter Webb, co-manager of the AGBP18.1m Unicorn Free Spirit and AGBP9.4m UK Equity Income funds and manager of its...

SVM goes Dutch on manager.
November 14, 2005... SVM Asset Management has shored up the loss of four recent manager departures with a fresh clutch of appointments. SVM has appointed managers Hugh Cuthbert and Neil Veitch from Dutch-based Kempen Capital Management. Mr Cuthbert will be lead...

A dose of good with the bad.
November 14, 2005... A raft of data in the recent past paints a gloomy picture for the UK economy. While things are not exactly rosy, not everything is as grim as data would have you believe. Britain's gross domestic product growth has halved in the last year...

New Star's Pan-Euro on way.
November 21, 2005... New Star is adding to its European funds with the launch of the New Star Pan-European Equity fund. Designed as a high-alpha, value-biased fund, it will be focusing on delivering long-term absolute returns through pure stock selection. It...

Atlantis in Far East fund move.
November 21, 2005... Atlantis Investment Management has listed Korean and an Indian Opportunities funds. Both funds will be Dublin-listed sub-funds of the Atlantis International Umbrella fund and will be managed by local teams based in the capitals of the two...

Advertising does New Star good.
November 21, 2005... Advertising has done well for New Star, but not in terms of billboard presence Its the UK manager is cashing in on corporate activity in the area. Tim Steer's AGBP268.4m New Star Alpha fund saw its shares in advertising space purchaser...

Investors skittish on housing and equity.
November 21, 2005... Investors are growing increasingly nervous over both the housing and equity markets, a survey has claimed. According to the latest investor confidence index from the Association of Investment Trust Companies, only 30 per cent of the...