Photo: epSos.de . More Than 50% of Asset Managers Received Requests for Responsible Investing
New research from global analytics firm Cerulli Associates finds that more than 50% of asset managers received requests for socially responsible investing (SRI) and environmental, social, governance (ESG) mandates from institutional clients.
“Many executives we spoke with during our research interviews told us that they are getting more client inquiries regarding responsible investing strategies,” states Susana Schroeder, senior analyst at Cerulli. “Most managers deal with requests that involve restrictions against holding securities, which are often tied to responsible investing.”
Responsible investment encompasses several areas: ESG, SRI, mission-related investing, impact investing, and program-related investing.
“There is increasing acceptance among investors and managers that ESG factors, such as hazardous waste disposal and predatory lending practices, can have a material impact on a company’s financial wellbeing,” Schroeder explains. “Public defined benefit plans and nonprofits are most likely to incorporate ESG factors into their investment process, because of pressure from donors, students, taxpayers, and other constituents.”
“Institutional sales teams report that clients and prospects are inquiring about this area as they seek to better understand the different aspects of sustainable investing,” Schroeder continues. “Even professionals working in the trenches have witnessed this shift, including request for proposal (RFP) teams, which have reported a rise in the number of RFPs with embedded ESG-related questions.”
Miguel Salinero Barbolla, client service associate at Capital Group. Capital Group Expands Client Service Team
Investment management company Capital Group has announced the appointment of Miguel Salinero Barbolla as client service associate.
Based in London, Salinero is responsible for facilitating client servicing for Capital Group’s financial institutions and intermediaries in Europe.
He joins from BNY Mellon, where he worked most recently as head of international client services and prior to that as client service executive for Spain and Portugal.
Grant Leon, head of Sales for Capital’s Financial Institutions and Intermediaries business, comments on the appointment: “Miguel’s appointment is important as we continue to establish new – and deepen our existing – relationships with intermediaries and our distribution partners across Europe.”
Photo: José Luis Cernadas Iglesias. Riccardo Dallolio Joins H.I.G. Capital as Co-Head of European Real Estate
H.I.G. Capital, a global private equity investment firm with more than €13 billion of capital under management, is pleased to announce the appointment of Riccardo Dallolio as Managing Director and Co-Head of European Real Estate. Based in London, he will share these leadership responsibilities with Ahmed Hamdani, who has been a Managing Director in London since 2012.
With over 16 years in the real estate industry, Riccardo has extensive investment and transactional experience across a number of jurisdictions in Europe. Prior to H.I.G., he was at AXA RE where he was Head of Alternatives and Special Situations. During his time at AXA RE, he also held the positions of Head of Transactions in Europe and Head of Asset Management and Transactions in France. Prior to AXA, Riccardo was a Partner at Grove International Partners, and worked in the J.P. Morgan Real Estate Group in London.
H.I.G. Capital’s real estate platform targets opportunistic real estate investments, with a focus on adding value, improving performance, and achieving attractive risk adjusted returns. With offices in London, Madrid, and Milan, the H.I.G. European real estate team is active across a wide spectrum of real estate asset classes. It has completed 13 transactions across multiple jurisdictions in Europe in the last two years including the U.K., Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Finland. With the ability to invest in all parts of the capital structure, H.I.G. Capital is able to develop creative financing solutions and consummate transactions on an expedited basis. Typical investment size ranges from €10 million to €100 million.
In commenting on the appointment, Sami Mnaymneh, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of H.I.G., noted, “I am delighted to welcome Riccardo to the firm. He is a very experienced and successful real estate investor who significantly augments the expertise and capabilities of our team. I am confident he will play an instrumental role in H.I.G. Capital’s development and growth in the real estate asset class.”
Photo: LinkedIn. Jean Pierre Mustier Joins Tikehau Capital for Expansion
Jean Pierre Mustier, formerly head of corporate and investment banking at UniCredit, has joined Tikehau Capital as a partner to help the fund manager’s international expansion.
Mustier joined in early January and is based in London. He stepped down from UniCredit at the end of 2014 after a tenure of almost four years at the bank. He is, however, still a member of UniCredit’s international advisory board.
As well as overseeing Tikehau’s international expansion, Mustier will contribute to the fund manager’s existing business.
Tikehau Capital Group manages $5bn for institutional and private investors in various asset classes – listed and private equity, credit, private debt, and real estate – through its asset management subsidiary, Tikehau IM.
Photo: Scott Beale. Recovery Moves Up a Gear as Consumers Step on the Gas
Nadia Grant, Fund Manager at Threadneedle Investments, addresses some of the questions currently on the minds of US equity investors. Overall, she believes that US stocks are very attractively valued in relation to other markets and will gain support from a broad-based economic recovery.
Last year we saw relatively strong economic growth in the US, but a slowdown elsewhere, while oil prices have now halved and the US dollar has surged. Given those developments, how sustainable is the US recovery and will the shape of that growth be affected?
We think the US economic recovery is broadly based and are forecasting GDP growth in 2015 of around 3%, which should provide a very supportive backdrop for equities. We expect the consumer to account for around two-thirds of this growth, at about two percentage points, up from 1.6 percentage points in 2014. The collapse in the oil price is benefitting US consumers enormously. They are now paying an average US$2.14 a gallon, and just US$1.80 in some states, rather than US$3.50 before the oil price drop. These extra dollars provide a considerable boost to lower-income workers, who have a significant propensity to spend. Thus, the lower gasoline price is highly stimulative for the economy.
We expect investment to contribute about one percentage point to overall growth, a level which is also higher than last year.
Interest rates have not risen in the US for nearly nine years but the Federal Reserve has been guiding investors to expect a rise at some point this year. Do you think that this is a reason for US equity investors to be fearful?
No, we do not think investors should be concerned. The Federal Reserve’s guidance reflects the fact that interest rates are abnormally low by historical standards, and more importantly, that the US is on the path to a self- sustainable recovery and thus a normalisation of interest rates. A rise in interest rates would provide concrete evidence of the Federal Reserve’s confidence in the recovery and that view should also support equities. Historically, the market tends to anticipate the first rate hike six months in advance of it taking place and tends to be a lot more volatile during this period. However, historical evidence indicates that rising interest rates have no material impact on the market six months to a year after the first rate hike.
US equity market valuations were at the top of investors’ minds in 2014. Our view was that valuations were quite reasonable and that earnings growth would drive market gains and this proved largely correct. What is your view of valuations going into 2015?
The market has not re-rated but has simply grown in line with earnings and we expect this trend to continue in 2015. The consensus is that equities will be trading at about 15 times PE by the end of the year, which is in line with the market’s long-term historic average. Thus, we think that US equities are neither expensive nor cheap. Given that the US is the sole engine of global growth and given how sound the recovery is, we believe US stocks are very attractively valued in relation to other markets.
What about the inflation?
Low inflation means the rate at which equity cashflow is discounted is also low and historically this has been very supportive for the market. Economic fundamentals and earnings growth should underpin expectations for 2015. As mentioned, we are forecasting 3% GDP growth, which translates into 5-6% revenue growth, some profit margin expansion and buybacks of around 1%. Thus, we anticipate high single-digit earnings growth in 2015, which is high by historic standards.
How are you positioning the American Fund for 2015 and could you provide examples of stocks in which you have the highest conviction?
We focus on companies that are uniquely placed in terms of having secular growth drivers and pricing power. Consequently, in the American Fund we are overweight in the technology and healthcare sectors, which are home to companies that have disruptive new technologies as well as pricing power. Meanwhile, we are underweight in energy and telecoms. We believe energy prices have yet to find a floor, yet the stock price of companies within the sector does not reflect the fall that we have seen in the oil price, while the telecoms sector is subject to intense competition and price erosion, in other words the complete opposite of what we seek.
Photo: Daniel Chapman. Loomis Sayles Adds Investment Strategist to Emerging Markets Team
Loomis, Sayles & Company announced the addition of Esty Dwek as emerging markets global strategist. She is based in the company’s London office and reports to both Peter Marber, head of emerging markets and Christine Kenny, co-managing director of the Loomis Sayles London office.
In this newly created role, Esty is responsible for analyzing emerging market (EM) trends and formulating broad EM country and asset allocation recommendations. As a member of the EM team, Esty will liaise with sell-side analysts, consultants, prospects and existing clients.
“I’m very pleased Esty has joined our team – we worked together previously and I think she is a thoughtful, skilled investor and communicator,” said Peter Marber.
Loomis Sayles has been managing emerging markets assets for over 20 years. Total firm-wide emerging markets assets totaled $16.2 billion, with approximately $8.3 billion in hard currency and $7.9 billion in local currency, as of December 31, 2014.
In 2014, Loomis Sayles announced three new EM portfolio management additions; Joshua Demasi and Michael McDonough were named EM equity portfolio managers in July; Elisabeth Colleran joined the team as EM fixed income portfolio manager in April.
Before joining Loomis Sayles, Esty was an investment strategist in the private bank at HSBC for nearly six years in London. Previously, Esty attended HSBC Private Bank’s graduate program in London, Geneva, New York and Singapore. She earned a BA from Princeton University and holds the CISI accreditation.
Foto: BCE Official. ¿Ha cambiado el programa QE el comportamiento de los inversores?
A recent post noted that the oil price has fallen by more than 30% over six months on five previous occasions since World War Two. The global economy was stronger a year after these drops: the six-month increase in industrial output was higher than its starting level in all five cases, said Simon Ward, economist in financial markets at Henderson Global Investors.
Three of the five oil price falls (1991, 2001 and 2008) were associated with US/global recessions, he explains. A fourth (1998) reflected the Asian economic crisis. The 1986 decline bears the closest resemblance to today. It was partly the result of a mid-cycle global economic slowdown but the more important drivers were a large rise in non-OPEC supply and a structural reduction in demand due to energy conservation in response to a sustained high price in the early 1980s.
The first chart, writes Ward in his last article, overlays the path of spot Brent in the mid 1980s on its recent movement, with the 1980s price rescaled by multiplying it by four. Based on the earlier episode, Brent could bottom at below $40 during the first quarter before recovering to $70-80 by end-2015.
The recovery could be stronger if non-OPEC supply is more price elastic than in the 1980s, as some analysts contend.
The oil price bottomed in July 1986. G7 industrial output growth embarked on a strong recovery soon after, reaching a boom level by late 1987, highlights Ward.
G7 consumer price inflation fell sharply in 1986 but retraced most of this decline in 1987.
Falling US inflation contributed to the Federal Reserve cutting its target Fed funds rate by 2.125 percentage points between December 1985 and August 1986. The Fed, however, reversed course in December 1986 and was forced to tighten aggressively in 1987 as the economy boomed. Longer-term Treasury yields bottomed in April 1986 ahead of the oil price, moving sideways over the remainder of the year before rising sharply from March 1987.
The relevant comparison today may be with the Eurozone. “ECB President Draghi is using a temporary fall in headline consumer prices to push through further easing despite monetary trends and leading indicators suggesting improving economic prospects, with Germany already at full employment. In 1986, the Fed started to raise rates only four months after its final cut. The QE could find ECB opponents that may have strong grounds for calling for a suspension later in 2015″, concludes Henderson’s economist.
Photo: Moyan Brenn. Azimut Pruchases 70% of Largest Independent Asset Manager in Turkey
Italy’s independent asset manager Azimut and Turkish Bosphorus Capital Portfoy Yonetimi have signed an investment and shareholders agreement to start a partnership in Turkey.
According to the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, Azimut, through AZ International Holdings S.A., will purchase 70% of Bosphorus equity capital for €7.4m.
Bosphorus was established as an independent asset manager in 2011 by four partners with an average 20 years investment experience.
Currently Bosphorus is the largest independent asset management company in Turkey thanks to its consistent and positive track record in excess of the local risk-free rate, its direct funds raising capability and the implementation of a successful distribution model via the banking channel.
Furthermore, 20% of Bosphorus’ AUM are linked to institutional clients, mainly insurance companies. On the product side, the range of 10 managed funds span fixed income, equity and balanced strategies.
As of December 2014, Bosphorus had AUM of some TL1bn (equivalent to €390m), of which almost 70% in Turkish domiciled mutual funds and 30% in discretionary portfolios.
The Turkish asset management industry has €22bn in AUM as of December 2014 (of which more than 90% is invested in short term fixed income strategies) with around 40 asset management companies (of which 29 are independent) registered with the Turkish Capital Market Board.
The commercial and industrial integration of Azimut Portföy, AZ Notus Portföy and Azimut Bosphorus Capital Portföy creates Turkish largest independent player with a diversified product range and a distribution network with both proprietary financial advisors and third party distributors.
Capital Strategies Partners, a third party mutual fund distribution firm, holds the distribution of AZ Fund Management products in Latin America
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrFoto: Fut und Beidl. ¿Aciertan las estrategias 'top-down'?
A new global survey commissioned by State Street amongst 235 hedge fund professionals reveals strong optimism within the industry. The findings show that respondents (55 percent) expect pension funds to increase their exposure to hedge fund strategies over the next five years. This figure increased to 63 percent when the question was asked more broadly about institutional investors increasing their exposure to hedge funds in the next five years.
Of the 55 percent of hedge fund professionals who expect pension funds to increase their allocation, 53 percent believe the main driver of this is the performance challenges facing investors’ portfolios. 35 percent believe it will be a growing focus on portfolio diversification and 13 percent who think it will be improved terms offered by hedge funds.
However, to really capitalise on the growing appetite for hedge fund strategies, nine out of ten industry professionals interviewed believe hedge funds will be required to more clearly demonstrate their value to prospective investors.
Maria Cantillon, global head alternative investment solutions sales at State Street said, “Despite the challenges facing the hedge fund industry, our findings show that many working in the sector are optimistic about its future prospects. This is being fuelled by challenges facing asset owners as they search for better returns and greater diversification. The hedge fund industry is maturing and becoming more transparent and competitive.”
In terms of how hedge fund professionals see their own firms changing over the next five years, 60 percent expect to broaden the range of investment strategies they manage; 37 percent anticipate that they will expand abroad and one in ten expects to acquire another company.
According to the survey, regulation will continue to have a significant impact on hedge fund managers. However, the full impact of Basel III is yet to be determined, with 29 percent of respondents believing that it will significantly increase their firm’s cost of financing, compared to 42 percent saying it wouldn’t and the remainder (29 percent) saying they don’t know. The findings also suggest growing competition from alternative mutual funds. Half of those interviewed believe that over the next five years, they will seize market share from traditional hedge fund strategies.
Photo: Dennis Jarvis. Occupy Wall Street in Qing Dynasty, China
What if a banker’s family could be taken as slaves to repay losses arising from the banker’s malfeasance? This is no fantasy from Occupy Wall Street. Such a system actually existed 200 years ago in the Shanxi banking system.
The possible enslavement of a bank employee’s relatives is the most severe instance of policies and operating methods that aligned employee and shareholder interests. Because the principal/agent wedge lies at the heart of corporate governance, Shanxi bank governance has much to recommend to modern banking (well, except for the slavery part).
Bordering Mongolia, Shanxi is a desolate region in central China best known today for coal mining. It is a surprising birthplace for a banking system that served elite citizens and the treasury of the Qing dynasty. Shanxi banks thrived amid wars and pervasive corruption in the merchant economy. They started by providing bank drafts to traveling merchants, but soon established regional branches that took deposits, provided loans, exchanged currencies and recorded peer-to-peer loans, for which certificates were issued.
They had a peculiar class share structure that distinguished between asset ownership, operational control and cash flow rights. “Capital” shares conferred a pro rata ownership stake in the assets of the bank. However, they did not come with a say in how the bank conducted daily operations. Most fascinating of all, a Shanxi bank capital shareholder had unlimited liability, in the same way as a Lloyds name.
Therefore, Capital shareholders had to hire carefully and structure thoughtful compensation policies. On “assessment days,” Capital shareholders conducted a performance review of bank employees and allocated “Expertise” shares, which came with the right to receive dividends. Expertise shareholders (i.e. employees) had a pro-rata vote in bank operations. The general manager functioned as a one-man board of directors and could ratify or reject recommendations. The general manager was himself periodically re-appointed or replaced, based on a vote of Capital shareholders.
Expertise shareholders who retired or died on the job had their shares converted to “Dead shares,” which had cash flow rights, no management vote and a finite term. In this way, the problem of managerial entrenchment was mitigated.
Given the unlimited liability of Capital shareholders, they also relied on cultural and tribal enforcement to safeguard financial interests and mitigate their unlimited liability. Shanxi banks hired from only within the Shanxi province. Job candidate family histories going back three generations were scrutinized. Candidates needed affidavits of personal integrity and a guarantee letter from prominent citizens. No marriage was allowed during a branch tour of duty, and family members were not permitted to accompany the employee during branch postings. Family members of bank employees were a kind of “performance bond,” and Capital shareholders liked to keep this collateral nearby.
In return for enduring such conditions, Expertise shareholders, such as employees, enjoyed a stable job with pay for performance, and a handsome pension in retirement. Over the 100 years during which the banks were active, no case of significant employee misbehavior was documented.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the Shanxi bank empire had become the government’s banker. So what happened to it? First, political turmoil hurt both loan performance and loan growth. Some of the instability was homegrown and some was introduced by Western intrusion. Secondly, competition intensified among local and foreign banks using telegraphs to dramatically cut operating costs. As if this disruptive technology was not bad enough, the newcomers also operated with limited liability, which translated into bigger balance sheets and less risk aversion. Profitability for Shanxi banks disintegrated as a government banking franchise and its strong reputation were not able to offset a higher cost structure and operational inflexibility.
Chinese banking today is dominated by state-owned enterprises. While they serve an important public utility function of taking public deposits and allocating capital, their struggles with the biggest economic transition in history have been well-documented. The bank sector in countries growing much more slowly have not been immune from the same problems that Chinese banks face. Fast-growing economies present their own set of challenges and dangers for the highly levered bank sector. Compounding these difficulties in China is the sheer geographic, demographic and economic scope of bank operations.
We are certain to see more turmoil in the years ahead, but it is worth keeping in mind that banking discipline and robust corporate governance were once well-established in China, and may yet come again.
Opinion column by Gerald Hwan, Portfolio Manager at Matthews Asia.
The views and information discussed represent opinion and an assessment of market conditions at a specific point in time that are subject to change. It should not be relied upon as a recommendation to buy and sell particular securities or markets in general. The subject matter contained herein has been derived from several sources believed to be reliable and accurate at the time of compilation. Matthews International Capital Management, LLC does not accept any liability for losses either direct or consequential caused by the use of this information. Investing in international and emerging markets may involve additional risks, such as social and political instability, market illiquidity, exchange-rate fluctuations, a high level of volatility and limited regulation. In addition, single-country funds may be subject to a higher degree of market risk than diversified funds because of concentration in a specific geographic location. Investing in small- and mid-size companies is more risky than investing in large companies, as they may be more volatile and less liquid than large companies. This document has not been reviewed or approved by any regulatory body.
