CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Jason Kotik, senior investment manager, North American Equities at Aberdeen Asset Management . Jason Kotik will talk US Small Caps at the Fund Selector Summit in Miami
Jason Kotik, senior investment manager, North American Equities at Aberdeen Asset Management is set to discuss smaller companies investing when he takes part in the upcoming Fund Selector Summit Miami 2016 on the 28th and 29th of April.
As a manager, Aberdeen has been harnessing big ideas in the North American smaller company space for years. The companies may be small, but they believe they have the potential to pack a punch for long-term investors, especially those willing to dig deep.
The conference, aimed at leading funds selectors and investors from the US-Offshore business, will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne. The event-a joint venture between Open Door Media, owner of InvestmentEurope, and Fund Society- will provide an opportunity to hear the view of several managers on the current state of the industry.
Kotik, Aberdeen senior investment manager and member of Aberdeen’s North American Equity Team, will speak about how to find such opportunities, including reasons why the current period offers opportunity to invest in small-cap equities.
Kotik’s responisbilities include co-management of client portfolios at Aberdeen, which he joined in 2007 following the acquisition of Nationwide Financial Services. Previously, he worked at Allied Investment Advisors and T. Rowe Price. He graduated from the University of Delaware and earned an MBA from Johns Hopkins University. He is a CFA charterholder.
You can find all the information about the Fund Selector Miami Summit 2016, aimed at leading fund selectors and investors from the US-Offshore business, through this link.
Foto: Jorge Andrés Paparoni Bruzual
. Más de dos tercios de los family offices realizaron inversiones directas en alternativos en 2015
2016 FOX Global Investment Survey from Family Office Exchange (FOX) finds that 69% of Family Offices engaged in direct investing in 2015. Families with first- or second-generation leadership are much more likely to do direct investing than families with later-generation leadership, with 81% of Gen 1-2 families engaging in direct investing compared to 46% of Gen 3 and later. Growth capital is the most popular private equity deal stage (32%) followed by venture capital (30%).
“Investing directly in real estate properties or operating companies is familiar for many family offices that earned their wealth by building businesses,” says Charles B. Grace, III, managing director at FOX. “In the face of volatility in the public markets, direct investments can seem a haven for those who want transparency and prefer taking risks with companies and/or properties they can investigate and perhaps control in some manner.”
Direct investors tend to be active investors, with forty percent (40%) preferring a lead role that gives them the transparency and control that they desire from their direct investments. When asked where they are finding new direct investing opportunities, 71% of direct investors said they rely on networking or their existing relationships/word of mouth. Proper evaluation of opportunities and deal pricing are the two biggest challenges facing direct investors looking to implement their strategy.
“Deal pricing has become a bigger challenge in executing a successful direct investment strategy as the market has become more efficient,” says Karen Clark, managing director at the organization. “Evaluating opportunities is a bigger challenge for participants than finding deal flow.”
Regarding returns, the research finds out that the median overall return for survey participants in 2015 was 2%, and expected 2016 return is 6%. Also that direct real estate and direct private equity enhanced returns in 2015, gaining 18% and 15% respectively.
Seventy-eight percent (78%) of families are broadly diversified with a conservative growth orientation, including 20% to cash and fixed income, 43% to equities, 2% to hard assets, and 33% to alternatives.
The study provides an in-depth look at the investment activity of leading single family offices, providing perspective on a range of topics including Economic Outlook and Investment Opportunities for 2016, Asset Allocation and Performance, Use of Investment Consultants and Investment Committees, Reliance on Alternative Investments, and Direct Investing.
Photo: DanNguyen, Flickr, Creative Commons. Nordea Asset Management Expands its Active U.S. Fixed Income Offering with U.S Core Plus Bond Fund
Nordea Asset Management (NAM) announces that it has launched on April 4, 2016 the Nordea 1 – US Core Plus Bond Fund, provides investors active, diversified investment across the different sectors of the U.S. bond market. The investment objective of the Fund is to maximise total return over a full market cycle through income generation and price appreciation.
DoubleLine Capital LP (DoubleLine) is the sub-manager of the Fund. With this new offering, NAM broadens its partnership with DoubleLine, which as the sub-manager has provided investment services to the Nordea 1 – US Total Return Fund since its launch in 2012.
While the core of the portfolio consists of Investment-Grade U.S. debt instruments (covered by the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Index), the “Plus” in the Fund name indicates that the investment universe expands beyond the traditional benchmark sectors to areas such as High Yield, USD-denominated Emerging Market Debt and non-Agency mortgage-backed securities.
“The design and flexibility of the Fund allows it to take advantage of areas of the market which DoubleLine believes offer attractive risk-adjusted return opportunities,” says Christophe Girondel, Global Head of Institutional and Wholesale Distribution. “We believe that the Fund forms an important addition to our current range of U.S. Fixed Income solutions, one of the major asset classes in any well diversified portfolio,” he adds.
The launch fully leverages Nordea’s multi-boutique approach and capabilities. This new fund complements the existing U.S. Fixed Income range of the Luxembourg-domiciled Nordea 1 SICAV, currently comprising a Low Duration US High Yield Bond fund, a US Corporate Bond fund, a US High Yield Bond fund, a North American High Yield Bond fund and a US Total Return Bond fund.
DoubleLine is an independent, employee-owned money management firm based in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Led by Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer Jeffrey Gundlach, the firm is widely recognised for its expertise and strong track record in active fixed income management. DoubleLine has been managing a similar strategy to the Nordea 1-US Core Plus Bond Fund since 2010.
DoubleLine’s investment philosophy is to build portfolios designed to outperform under a range of market scenarios by shunning away from unidirectional bets. The Fund achieves this through top-down active management of exposure to specific market segments combined with bottom-up security selection.
Foto: Leo Grübler
. J.P. Morgan Asset Management se hace con una participación minoritaria en el proveedor de ETFs Global X
J.P. Morgan Asset Management recently announced that it has made a passive, minority investment in Global X Management Company, a New York based ETF provider with a diversified suite of over 40 ETF solutions.
“Investing in Global X augments our ETF strategy by expanding and deepening our participation in this fast-growing industry,” said Jed Laskowitz, Co-Head of Global Investment Management Solutions for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. “We will continue to develop the J.P. Morgan ETF lineup with an eye toward future innovation in active ETFs while building this strategic partnership.”
“Widely acknowledged for its innovative products, Global X has become a leading provider of ETF solutions, and we are pleased to have them as a strategic partner,” said Robert Deutsch, Global Head of ETF Solutions for the firm. “This investment complements the growth of J.P. Morgan’s own ETF line-up, with seven strategic beta ETFs launched and many more to come.”
This investment will have no impact on how the asset management ETF Solutions and Global X operate their respective businesses. Specifically, there will be no co-marketing, investment management, distribution agreements or shared governance between the two organizations. This investment does not result in Global X becoming an affiliate of J.P. Morgan.
Aberdeen Asset Management PLC(Aberdeen) announced the appointment of Campbell Fleming as Global Head of Distribution.
Campbell will be responsible for Aberdeen’s global distribution platform encompassing 450 people across business development, product specialists, marketing and client service. He will also work closely with the senior management of all of Aberdeen’s investment capabilities.
Campbell is currently Chief Executive EMEA of Columbia Threadneedle as well as Global Chief Operating Officer. He joined Threadneedle from JP Morgan in 2009 as Head of Distribution. He has in-depth knowledge of markets in Asia, Europe and the Americas and has an enviable track record of successfully managing distribution teams across a range of client channels. Last October, Campbell was named CEO of the Year at the Financial News Asset Management Awards.
Campbell succeeds John Brett who stepped down from the role late last year. He will report to Martin Gilbert, Chief Executive and will join Aberdeen’s Group Management Board.
Martin Gilbert, Chief Executive at Aberdeen Asset Management, comments: “We are delighted to attract someone of Campbell’s caliber – this reflects the appeal of our global platform and our full-service capability across asset classes and strategies. After an in-depth worldwide search process, Campbell was identified as the outstanding candidate given his expertise and experience across client channels globally, including North America which is a key focus for us.”
Foto: Ged Carroll
. Los financial advisors son los que más influyen en las decisiones de inversión de los UHNW
Financial Advisors have a bigger role in investment decision-making for North American ultra-high net worth families than any other family member, group or committee, according to a new study from Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management and Campden Wealth Research.
The study among 59 individuals from families with net worth in excess of $25 million asked specifically how they made decisions about overall asset allocation, investing in a specific opportunity and divesting from a specific vehicle. Respondents said these were most frequently decided by family advisors, family office executives and professional financial advisors.
A professional financial advisor is used in 41% of cases for overall asset allocation, and a family advisor or family office executive in 38%. These same non-family members also help make decisions about specific opportunities in 44% and 35% of cases respectively, and to divest in vehicles or companies 41% each of the time.
“The fact that ultra-high net worth individuals appear to listen more to their financial advisors than their own family members shows the premium placed on good, professional investment advice,” said David Bokman, Head of Ultra-High Net Worth Resources for Morgan Stanley.
The results are contained within the newly published ‘Family Decision-Making’ report, which examines decision-making within ultra-high net worth families in North America. The influence of financial advisors is a recurring theme through the findings, but is particularly prevalent around investments.
Asked how much influence key stakeholders inside and outside the family had on ultra-high net worths’ goals, 89% said their wealth advisors had either a strong (50%) influence or some (39%) influence. This was higher than any other stakeholder, inside or outside the family.
Family business strategy or partners and affiliates were the second-most influential entity (44% strong influence and 40% some influence). Parents were a strong influence for a third of ultra-high net worth individuals and spouses for a quarter.
Commenting on the findings, Dominic Samuelson, Chief Executive Officer, Campden Wealth said: “Financial Advisors play a very important role in family decision-making, and enjoy a special – and often very select – place at the table of these ultra-high net worth families. In seeking to service them as best they can, Financial Advisors should look to gain as wide an understanding into families as possible and think about their complete needs.”
“The more that Financial Advisors can understand, the more holistic advice they can offer, and the more families will gain from their interactions. Financial Advisors may even wish to be explicit about their desire to gain more knowledge into the family from the outset to help fast-track this process,” added Mr. Bokman.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Matthias Born, senior portfolio manager, European Equities at Allianz Global Investors. Allianz GI’s Matthias Born is attending the Fund Selector Summit
Matthias Born, senior portfolio manager, European Equities at Allianz Global Investors will be discussing structural growth investing at the upcoming Fund Selector Summit Miami 2016, taking place 28-29 April.
Born, who is lead portfolio manager on the Allianz Europe Equity Growth Select fund, will outline how a high conviction strategy can focus on the most attractive structural growth ideas. His fund has been designed to benefit from bottom-up stock selection, through which weights on individual stocks are based on conviction levels across growth, quality and valuation criteria.
The conference, aimed at leading funds selectors and investors from the US-Offshore business, will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne. The event-a joint venture between Open Door Media, owner of InvestmentEurope, and Fund Society- will provide an opportunity to hear the view of several managers on the current state of the industry.
Born was appointed co-leader of the Investment Style Team Growth in 2009. Since then he has been lead portfolio manager of the funds and mandates of the strategy Euroland Equity Growth and Continental Europe Growth.
Before joining Allianz GI he worked for the Middle Market Group (Global Corporate Finance) at Dresdner Bank. In 2001, he graduated in Business Administration from the University of Würzburg with a master’s degree.
You can find all the information about the Fund Selector Miami Summit 2016, aimed at leading fund selectors and investors from the US-Offshore business, through this link.
A number of political developments are likely to trigger volatility in 2016, especially around the month of June. However, and according to Maxime Alimi, Economist – Euro area at Axa Investment Managers, the real risk lies in the longer term. For the first time since the 1950s, EU-scepticism is threatening the European project not just to stall, but to step back.
In Alimi’s last paper titled “Political risk in Europe: the short and the long view,” the strategist mentions that amongst the issues that may resurface around June are:
The UK’s Referendum
The possibility of elections in Spain
The relationship between the IMF and Greece
Portugal’s budget implementation review
More serious however is the EU-scepticism. Alimi mentions that “Europe has always been the subject of debates in terms of the political direction it should take: more or less pro-market, more or less social policies, more or less federal integration. But things are different today as Europe is challenged on two distinct fronts: first, the legitimacy of Europe as a relevant level for policy-making; second, confidence of Europeans in the reliability and trustworthiness of their peers. Europe is challenged as a relevant level for policy making. The line of argument is the inability of Europe to deal with the challenges of today and the ‘one size fits all’ policies: Europe has been unable to protect populations against a double crisis; Europe has been unable to lay out a policy response to international threats.”
The sovereign crisis, the QE programme and negative interest rates, as well as the terror attacks and refugee crisis of 2015 have provided further fuel to this dynamic of mutual distrust. “For the first time since its creation, one pillar of the European project – the Schengen agreement – was suspended as governments were no longer trusting their neighbours to enforce borders controls.” The risk Brexit brings is that for the first time since the project was initiated in the 1950s, Europe could not just stall but step back. “Building scenarios around a European disintegration is difficult and highly uncertain, but its impact would certainly be large,” he concludes.
You can download the full report in the following link.
Photo: Mike Gibb, co-head Global Wealth Management Distribution at Legg Mason Global Asset Management. Mike Gibb, co-head Global Wealth Management Distribution at Legg Mason Global Asset Management, will join the Fund Selector Summit Miami
Mike Gibb, equity specialist, co-head Global Wealth Management Distribution at Legg Mason Global Asset Management will join the upcoming Funds Society Fund Selector Summit Miami 2016, which takes place on the 28th and 29th of April.
The conference, aimed at leading funds selectors and investors from the US-Offshore business, will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne. The event-a joint venture between Open Door Media, owner of InvestmentEurope, and Fund Society- will provide an opportunity to hear the view of several managers on the current state of the industry.
Focusing on European long/short equity opportunities, Gibb, who is also an equity product specialist of Martin Currie, a Legg Mason affiliate, will look to outline how combining bottom up stockpicking with a macro overlay can generate alpha and deliver absolute returns in variable market conditions.
Before his previous role managing relationship and wealth mangement opportunities, Gibb was a client services director covering an institutional client base across regions. He has also been a hedge fund salesman with responsibility for investors in Europe and Asia. Before joining Martin Currie in 2005, Gibb was at Credit Suisse First Boston as a director and equity saleman for five years.
He was also an equity research salesman at Salomon Smith Barney for four years and before that a Far East equities fund manager for Gartmore and Scottish Amicable in 1990-1995. He is an associate of the UK Society of Investment Professionals (Asip) and a member of the CFA Society of the UK and has attained the Fundamentals of Alternative Investments certificate from CAIA . He graduated with an MA (Hons) in economic science from The University of Aberdeen.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: The Tax Haven. The Earnings Season in the US Adds Pressure To Financial Markets
As we approach the start of the Q1 earnings season in the US, financial markets experienced renewed pressures. During the last week, the MSCI world was down 1%, with EMU and Japanese equities underperforming US equities. Commodities were also down but interestingly this had limited implications on US high yield and EM.
This was detrimental for hedge funds with the Lyxor index down 0.7% during the last week. CTAs again outperformed, driven by the performance of the fixed income, energy and FX clusters. Long positions on the JPY vs USD were also rewarding (see chart) as a result of the continued depreciation of the USD.
“The minutes of the 15-16 March FOMC meeting reminded investors that the dovish stance of the Fed is not so consensual within the voting members of the Committee but this had little impact on the currency. It is actually a well known fact that Yellen had to deal with hawkish regional Fed presidents in 2016. The good news is that she has managed to control the hawks so far”, explain the Lyxor AM team head by Jeanne Asseraf-Bitton, Global Head of Cross Asset Research.
Overall, Lyxor AM are upgrading CTAs, from neutral to slight overweight. “After the market rally in March and ahead of the US earnings season, their defensive portfolio appears to be a good hedge against any disappointment. Meanwhile, their long stance on US fixed income is less aggressive and with 10-Treasury yields near the bottom of the range of the past three years, it seems adequate. They have also reduced their shorts on energy, which is a positive development as the USD depreciation implies upside risks on the asset class”, says the research.
With regards to Event-Driven, Merger Arbitrage funds suffered due to the Pfizer/ Allergan deal break. It followed the announcement of new Treasury rules to discourage tax inversion deals. The Lyxor Merger Arbitrage index is down 1.9% this week. A number of funds were involved in the deal: Merger Arbitrage managers had set up the spread (long Allergan/ short Pfizer), while Special Situation managers held either long positions in Allergan, Pfizer or both, explaining why they outperformed. “We maintain the slight overweight stance on Merger Arbitrage. The exposure of the strategy on inversion deals is marginal today, hence limiting contagion risks to the rest of the portfolios”, concludes.
