“Extended Alpha Fund Allows to Compete in A Race with Other Long Only Funds but with a 60% Bigger Engine”

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"Una estrategia “extended alpha” permite competir en una carrera de fondos long only con un motor un 60% más grande"
Ashish Kochar is a co-fund manager of Threadneedle Global Extended Alpha Fund. Courtesy photo.. "Extended Alpha Fund Allows to Compete in A Race with Other Long Only Funds but with a 60% Bigger Engine"

Ashish Kochar and Neil Robson, co-fund managers of the Threadneedle Global Extended Alpha Fund, explain in this interview with Funds Society the benefits from a 130/30 strategy and the need to generate alfa in a more volatile world.

The ‘Extended Alpha’ concept that names the strategy: In what does it consist exactly?

The easiest way to think about an Extended Alpha fund vs. a typical Long only fund is the analogy of competing in a race with other Long only Funds but with a 60% bigger engine (in this case the 60% extra Gross; upto 30% each from both the Long book and the Short book.)

Extended Alpha Funds or the 130/30 funds take short positions in stocks that are expected to fare badly, while taking long positions in stocks that are expected to outperform the market. The ultimate aim is to create a positive spread between the longs and the shorts. It might sound odd but even if the shorts outperform the market (benchmark) but underperforms the long stock – it still works in creating a positive spread ie alpha creation. They are called 130/30 because approximately 130% of the portfolio is invested in long positions, and 30% in short positions. (Investment managers can short a higher or smaller proportion of the portfolio). These funds have an overall net exposure to the market of approximately 100% and a beta near one, the same as a long-only fund.

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How do holding short positions help raising the portfolio’s value?

Shorts positions help the portfolio value in two ways. First, positive alpha creation:  You short something and it goes down and you create alpha. This is the bit that is easy to understand. Second, risk management for long book: This is the more interesting bit in that it allows one to own more of what they like in the long book and hedge out part of the risk by shorting a less good company.

In the current market: Is it more important to capture the ‘beta’ or obtaining the ‘alpha’? Why?

Over the past few years strong market performance has provided attractive market (beta) returns to investors.  Going forward, we expect lower returns from beta, and therefore the relative contribution and importance of alpha is quite important.  In the case of Global Extended Alpha we have been able to generate excess return compounded over the last five years. The more important bit is that these returns have been generated by taking minimal incremental risk.

Do you consider that volatility in the markets will rise?

Yes.  We live in an interconnected world so monetary policy changes around the world, particularly the dynamic of potential US rates rising; against slowing emerging market growth presents a major risk. We are concerned about the second-order effects of shifts in currency and commodity prices. Another risk factor is China. The economy is undergoing a long and a difficult transition. This creates new risks and volatility as we saw in the recent Chinese stock market correction.

Which is the current net exposure of the fund and why? Is it time to be cautious or aggressive in the markets?

The Net exposure of the fund is in the middle of the range with beta near one.  Equity markets are finely balanced at present and as long as one is confident about growth they look remain attractive relative to bonds.  (This is illustrated by the gap between Earnings vs. Bond yields in the chart below.)

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Do you believe that there are ‘bubbles’ in some equity markets?

Generally speaking no, we don’t see bubbles within major equity market regions.  Some subsectors of the market (and indeed valuations in some private markets (venture capital technology for instance), do look frothy. 

Is there value in the global markets? Where would you identify better values for your long and short positions (in sectorial terms, by countries)?

At the present time we believe the global market is relatively fully valued. From a long perspective we favour the US, technology, and consumer sectors. 

In your fund’s particular case, you hold conviction bets. How is conviction better than diversification? Is it possible to obtain a diversified portfolio while holding position in few names?

We have a large team, regional team resources, and central research analysts available to us, which means we generate a large number of high conviction ideas within our global opportunity set. Through our investment process we can achieve reasonable diversification by sector and region while only owning stocks that we have strong conviction in. We never own stocks just because they are in our benchmark.

“In 2015 Feminism Is A Business Issue”

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"En 2015 el feminismo se ha transformado en un asunto de negocios"
Barbara Stewa. "In 2015 Feminism Is A Business Issue"

The future looks very bright for women in finance, says Barbara Stewart, CFA. Author of the Book “Rich Thinking 2015: Future of Women& Finance”, and guest speaker at CFA Spain “Future of women and Finance” Forum. Stewart, portfolio manager at Cumberland Private Wealth Management Inc. Toronto. Canada, explains in this interview with Funds Society that the financially confident woman is the number one target market and technology has levelled the playing field for women.

How do you see the future of women in finance, and in the asset management industry in particular?

The future looks very bright for women in finance! Many studies now show that more women = more money and this is a very compelling equation for a still quite traditional investment industry. My research findings are clear that a) feminism makes good business sense, b) the financially confident woman is the number one target market, and c) technology has levelled the playing field for women. Women are huge users of social media and with respect to the asset management industry,  – this is beginning to radically change the way we inform our clients about stocks and bonds, the way we find our clients, as well as the way we communicate with our clients.

Women presence is still poor in the investment industry … do you think it will grow over time? Will women take on positions of greater responsibility?

Because of the fact that we will have more and more financially confident women as clients, we will need more sophisticated advisors to work with them. My research has shown that women like to communicate in a language that makes them comfortable and they prefer to invest in causes and concerns that matter to them. The best advisor moving forward? A highly competent male or female advisor who uses a holistic approach and integrates the so-called feminine values of empathy and open communication. Many firms are attempting to attract female advisors because they are a natural fit for this role.

How these developments can benefit the financial and asset management industry?

These developments are great for the industry because once again, it has been proven that more women equals more money. Simply put, women are making more money, they are controlling more money and they are making most of the financial decisions in their families. Our industry needs to do a good job marketing to these financially confident woman – she is the future. If we market to these women properly (using their preferred method of communication and accurately reflecting their values when we suggest various investment alternatives) – we can capitalize on this opportunity to attract significant assets from this critical demographic.

What the advantages of diversity are for companies in the finance and  the investment industry?

According to Dr. Ann Cavoukian, one of the ‘smart’ women that I interviewed for my white paper this year (Executive Director, Privacy and Big Data Institute, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada) – “Feminism is not about saying no to makeup. It is about saying yes to academic, economic and social freedom for both men and women.” In 2015 feminism is a business issue. This type of open communication (through diversity) leads to a better functioning marketplace and a better functioning workplace. Progressive firms that embrace diversity currently have a competitive edge. Firms that “get it” have a But this won’t be the case for much longer. Soon ‘business feminism’ will be normal – just like using computers or using electricity.

How the role of women is as a customer of the financial industry? Is it an important target group? Are women needs different to those of men?

My research has shown that women prefer to learn about and/or hear about financial matters through either informal instruction (via social media/gamification/sharing platforms) or through real-life stories. This means that we need to be ultra-precise when communicating with or marketing to financially confident women. They prefer to invest in causes and concerns that matter to them so our job as advisors is to help them align investment ideas with their values. Most importantly, realize that women aren’t risk averse, they are risk aware. They may take longer to make an investment decision but they will do their homework and take calculated risks. Success with this number one target group will be all about better communication – in the way that they prefer to communicate. And if you make it meaningful to women, they will invest in your product or service, and they will do so with loyalty.

Every time there are more women in major positions: Mrs. Janet Yellen in the FED, Mrs. Christine Lagarde at the IMF… How do you think people perceive them because their women role? Do you think they are judged differently than men?

Actually no. I think there was a time when female role models were being judged differently than men but I don’t think that is still happening. Of course there will always be “unconscious bias” but ultimately it is results that count in the business world and as long as these highly visible women are producing results, well … it is becoming more and more accepted that they are truly top performers and we need them. The beauty of seeing more and more female role models is that it is self-perpetuating – it is becoming more mainstream to view women as effective leaders.

What is the role that women are called to play in the future of the financial industry in Spain, and worldwide?

We need women to act as excellent communicators and to enable the transformation of the industry. We need to restore trust and the best way to do this is through the integration of social media and marketing. One of my interviewees – a behavioural economist, Dr. Gemma Calvert (Founder of Neurosense, Singapore) said – “women may not trust the investment industry but they will trust each other”. The way forward is for smart women to share their positive stories about success in work and life … and inspire other girls and women to think  “I can do that too!”

How the investment industry may become a better place for women?

The investment industry is the best place for a woman to work in my opinion. Why? Because you get rewarded for your results. So if you learn how to make money you will have not only financial independence but also the freedom to come and go as you please. And technology has changed everything. Women want to work from anywhere and now they are able to do just that. The role of an investment advisor can accommodate this need for flexibility so that women can continue to live their lives and structure their work schedules around their lives and competing responsibilities/interests.

Equity Income: Why Big Is Not Necessarily Best When it Comes to Dividend Yield

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¿Existen indicios de que están repuntando los beneficios europeos?
Photo: KMR Photography. Equity Income: Why Big Is Not Necessarily Best When it Comes to Dividend Yield

In the current low interest rate, low growth environment investors are increasingly looking to equities for an attractive level of income. There are still lots of interesting investment opportunities around the world, but I believe investors should be wary about simply looking for the highest yields on offer.

Diversification

History shows that dividends from the highest-yielding stocks can often be unsustainable (as illustrated in the chart below). This is one of the reasons we believe that investing across a diversified list of moderate-paying companies that have the potential to offer both dividend and capital growth over the medium to long term is the best approach.

Sustainability

The chart below looks at the sustainability of dividend yields across developed markets between 1995 and August 2015 and highlights the risk of chasing high yields without considering the underlying strength of the company. It shows that, in general, an estimated yield above 6% is less likely to be realised, as seen by the difference between the red and grey bars, than a forecast yield of 6% or below.

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Avoid value traps

We believe in avoiding value traps. This is because high-yielding equities can be more risky than their lower-yielding counterparts, particularly after a period of strong market performance (equity price rises push yields down). The high-yielding companies that are left are often structurally-challenged businesses or companies with high payout ratios (distributing a high percentage of their earnings as dividends) that may not be sustainable. An investor simply focusing on yields, or gaining exposure to this area of the market through a passive product, such as a high-yield index tracker fund, may end up owning a disproportionate percentage of these companies, which are often known as ‘value traps’.

We believe that an active, stock-picking approach is essential to equity income investing because it allows fund managers to analyse and understand which higher-yielding companies may have been undervalued by the market. To establish whether there is a real value opportunity we analyse a company’s earnings, strategy and the industry fundamentals to determine whether it is structurally at risk or whether it is just temporarily unloved, undervalued, or its earnings power underappreciated by the market.

Growing cash generation

Investors utilising a barbell investment approach, holding very high yield stocks to deliver income and very low dividend payers with more growth potential, may end up facing a greater than average number of dividend cuts than they appreciate. We prefer to spread risk by having a diversified portfolio of moderate dividend payers. Our focus is on investing in companies with strong and growing cash generation with the aim of finding attractive capital and dividend growth.

There are still plenty of opportunities for income investors with a global universe of more than 1,300 stocks in the MSCI All Country World Index that currently yield 2% or more. We focus on dividend paying companies that are generally yielding between 2% and 6%. This helps to ensure the yields we deliver to investors are at a healthy level and are suitably diversified with no reliance on any one sector or stock. This is in line with our philosophy of avoiding overvalued areas of the market.

Ben Lofthouse is a fund manager in a range of Equity Income mandates at Henderson.

Why the BOJ Does Not Need to Ease Much, If At All

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¿Por qué el Banco de Japón no necesita flexibilizar mucho la política monetaria?
Photo: Japanexperterna.se. Why the BOJ Does Not Need to Ease Much, If At All

Most economists expect the BOJ to ease further, quite aggressively so in many cases, later this month or shortly thereafter. Certainly, Japanese economic growth does seem to be lackluster, with industrial production and machine orders recently forcing many economists to lower their 3Q GDP forecasts to near zero growth from the 2Q. But there are several reasons to be more sanguine about the situation.

Firstly on economics, core inflation excluding all food and energy (which should be called “standard core”) ran at a 1.4% six month annualized rate in August, and this includes a housing rent component that continues to decline. Excluding rent as well, the CPI is rising about a 2.2% six month annualized rate. Note that Japan’s CPI rent is slightly lower than it was a decade ago (while the US rent CPI has risen about 35%), and if was rising at a 1% rate, then Japan’s standard core CPI would be rising at a 1.8% six month annualized rate, or very close to the BOJ’s goal.

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Secondly, there are several political reasons why Japan should avoid a weaker yen, which would be the obvious consequence. Already the US has been quite generous in not complaining about the yen at 120 against the US dollar, but there is not likely much tolerance for further weakening. US protectionist sentiment is rising and it is even questionable now whether the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be passed. Hillary Clinton, in stating her opposition to the deal, suggested that there was not enough effort on the foreign exchange component, and most Congressional Democrats would agree with her. In fact, a separate bill on monitoring foreign exchange matters had to be passed in conjunction with the Trade Promotion Authority in order to get enough votes for it to pass. A dramatic weakening of the yen would further harm the prospects for this major “third arrow” achievement of Abenomics, especially over the next three months before the US vote in TPP occurs. Lastly on the political side, Japanese voters are getting quite tired of inflation.

Thirdly, there are financial stability considerations. If Japan buys more JGBs and pushes long-bond yields even further near zero, then insurance companies, banks and other financial institutions, including pensions will complain that it is impossible to meet their long-term obligations with a reasonable amount of risk, as regulated by the government. Although there has been no major trouble so far, despite the fears of many doomsayers, an over-aggressive BOJ policy may unsettle the JGB market.

Many in the investment world are encouraging the BOJ to act, but from my readings of their thoughts, the BOJ would like to look past the short term considerations and count on wages rising enough to spur personal consumption, housing rents beginning to rise and Japanese corporations accelerating domestic investments instead of overseas ones. Indeed, the BOJ should be pleased that it has raised the standard core CPI from the negative annual rate extant since the late 1990s (except for a few months in 2008), at great risk to its reputation. Relying on a weaker currency or more aggressive monetary policy is not the key to success for Japan, but rather, continued structural reforms, including the TPP and components of Abenomics 2.0, corporation’s confidence in their own country and workers, and of course, a continued sturdy global economic backdrop.

Opinion column by John Vail, Chief Global Strategist, Nikko AM.

Santander Private Banking Named “Best Private Bank 2015” in Latin America and Portugal, According to The Banker

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Santander Private Banking, elegido 'Mejor Banco Privado 2015' en Latinoamérica y Portugal por la revista The Banker
Ángel Rivera, Senior Executive Vice-President and head of the Retail & Commercial Banking Division at Banco Santander.. Santander Private Banking Named "Best Private Bank 2015" in Latin America and Portugal, According to The Banker

The Banker magazine named Santander Private Banking the “Best Private Bank” in Latin America for the third consecutive year and in Portugal, for the first time. These awards acknowledge its specialized advisory service model for private banking customers.

Ángel Rivera, Senior Executive Vice-President and head of the Retail & Commercial Banking Division at Banco Santander, states, “One of the main focuses in the transformation process under way at Santander is specialization, with a unique offering and a personalized customer-care model, which provides solutions tailored to each customer. The Santander Private Banking model draws from the Group’s strengths and expertise. The private banker is the main point of contact for the customer and is backed by the Group´s commercial networks, multidisciplinary specialists and technological tools. Together, they help customers take investment decisions based on their unique profile and needs, consolidating a long-lasting relationship of trust.”

In addition to this recognition, Global Finance magazine named Santander Private Banking’s units in Portugal, Mexico and Spain as the “Best Private Bank 2015”.

Santander Private Banking offers services to local clients in Brazil, Chile, Spain, Italy, Mexico and Portugal, , and also offers services to international clients through its presence in the United States, Switzerland and the Bahamas.

Santander Private Banking ended 2014 with assets under management of USD 218.3 billion (up 11%) and a 3% increase in the customer base. Net funds raised amounted to USD 11.414 billion, up 57% on 2013. In Latin America, assets under management increased by 14% and the customer base was up 23%. In Portugal, assets under management rose by 8% and the number of customers grew by 10%.

Finance, Insurance & Real Estate Sectors: The Most Targeted in September for Cyber Attacks

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Los sectores financiero e inmobiliario: los preferidos a la hora de diseñar ciberataques
Photo: Victor Camilo, Flickr, Creative Commons. Finance, Insurance & Real Estate Sectors: The Most Targeted in September for Cyber Attacks

The Finance, Insurance, & Real Estate sector was the most targeted sector during September, comprising 27 percent of all targeted attacks, accorging the new study by Symantec.

Large enterprises were the target of 45.7 percent of spear-phishing attacks in September, up from 11.7 percent in August.

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Blended Debt: An Increasingly Popular Strategy, but What Can Investors Expect?

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Deuda "blended": una estrategia cada vez más popular, pero ¿qué pueden esperar los inversores?
Foto: ElanasPantry, Flickr, Creative Commons. Blended Debt: An Increasingly Popular Strategy, but What Can Investors Expect?

Over the past decade, blended emerging market debt (EMD) strategies have grown from nowhere to around a US$100 billion asset class (see Figure 1). In the last few years, in particular, they have become the favoured way for investors to access EMD, receiving positive net flows whilst dedicated local and hard currency EMD universes have seen net outflows.

But what exactly constitutes a ‘blended’ emerging market debt strategy? And how should investors expect these strategies to behave? Indeed, what is the optimal long-term strategic asset allocation and what should investors expect from their managers in terms of asset allocation and risk management? In this month’s topic piece Investec looks to answer some of these fundamental questions in an attempt to offer a better understanding of this new and, attractive, entry point to emerging market debt.

Defining ‘blended’ EMD

Defining what makes a strategy blended should be easy: namely any strategy that combines both local currency and hard currency denominated debt. However, the difficulty is that most ‘pure’ local currency debt funds will at times include some form of dollar (hard currency) denominated debt. Similarly, many ‘pure’ hard currency debt funds include some allocation to local debt.

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Thus, as well as having a meaningful allocation to both local and hard currency debt, one of the key attributes of a blended EM debt strategy should be the ability to dynamically allocate between asset classes with the view of outperforming a mixed local currency/hard currency benchmark. Yet many blended strategies make little or no attempt to allocate between asset classes or outperform a mixed benchmark. To illustrate this point, Investec AM examines the ‘eVestment Emerging Markets Fixed Income – Blended Currency’ universe which consists of 50 strategies described by their managers as ‘blended’. However, as Figure 2 shows, only 19 of these strategies have identified themselves with a benchmark made up of both local and hard currency emerging market debt (be this sovereign or corporate debt).

Even if we filter out strategies that do not meet our basic definition, its research shows that not all blended strategies offer a truly blended approach. “We find that most blended strategies tend to have a strong bias towards hard currency debt and also to generally being overweight risk (i.e. being long beta)”.

“We believe that the bias towards hard currency debt exposure, both within benchmarks and relative to benchmarks, is due to a number of factors. First and foremost, some managers may be inexperienced in managing local currency debt, especially with regards to managing the currency exposure itself and treating it as an opportunity rather than a risk. Secondly, not all managers have the experience and capacity to open local currency accounts, manage settlement and custody, as well as taxes, for the various local markets. Finally, we envisage that some managers are adapting what were once pure hard currency EMD strategies into more typical blended approaches, a process that will take time to fully evolve”.

As the asset class and blended strategies continue to evolve, along with client preferences and demands, Investec expects that the universe of blended strategies will tend to become more focused, with a similar range of benchmarks and more balanced asset allocation.

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Determining an optimal strategic allocation

Not surprisingly, it is a difficult task trying to determine what the optimal long-term allocation to the various emerging market debt asset classes should be, not least because ultimately this will also depend on each individual or institutional investor’s risk preferences. “What we are able to do, however, is consider a range of factors which should at least inform our decision on the strategic asset allocation and, hopefully, give us a better understanding of what to expect from this allocation in terms of a range of likely outcomes”.

“Using simulation of historical data (please see the longer white paper for more details) in combination with evaluating the size and accessibility of each component of the EMD universe, we believe that an approximately equal allocation between local and hard, which some blended strategies offer, is reasonable. While this may mean that returns are dampened by the local currency hedged bond component, historically (although not recently) this has somewhat been made up for by the currency component. Meanwhile, including corporate debt in the hard currency debt allocation should serve to dampen the overall volatility over time, although drawdowns might be expected to be slightly worse”.

One could argue that we should bias the exposure to hard currency debt (as many strategies have done) given that the currency component of local debt increases the volatility and, at least recently, has not contributed much to returns. “However, we believe that this argument may be relying too much on the recent historical data and ignores the important fact that local debt is a much larger asset class than hard currency debt, yet with far less money dedicated to it. One thing we would favour is increasing the exposure to hard currency corporate debt from the 10% suggested by our simulations. This is because, once again, it is a much larger asset class than hard currency sovereign debt. Furthermore, we also believe that the hard currency corporate debt asset class will continue to grow and present investors with attractive, diversified access to new countries and sectors. Ultimately, each investor’s risk profile will be different and would thus demand different allocations. Furthermore, we have only considered this allocation from the point of view of a dollar-based investor. The analysis could be quite different for investors with other base currencies. However, a 50/50 allocation between local and hard currency debt, with a reasonable (at least 20%) allocation to corporate debt seems to us to be a good way of balancing the need to optimise risk-adjusted returns while still not chasing the crowd and investing into already well- owned asset classes”, according to Investec.

Are Portfolio Decisions Feeding Volatility?

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¿Alimentan la volatilidad las decisiones de los portfolio managers?
Photo: Phil Whitehouse. Are Portfolio Decisions Feeding Volatility?

Markets had been unusually calm, until risk surged in late August. Bigger portfolio shifts when volatility is rising may be magnifying the spikes, making markets harder to navigate. AB thinks the answer is focusing on more than risk.

It’s true that volatility has moderated a bit but is still higher than it was before August, and policy makers have taken note of these sudden shifts in risk. In fact, it was one of the reasons why the US Federal Reserve decided to hold off on raising interest rates in September, point out Brian T. Brugman, portfolio manager of Multi-Asset at AB, and Martin Atkin, Head of US Client Solutions at AllianceBernstein Multi-Asset Solutions Group. To avoid being whipsawed, recommended, investors should take a holistic view of their portfolios. The focus should be on more than risk signals—return signals matter, too.

Reactions to Market Volatility Amplify It

“Our research indicates that risk factors—and oversimplified asset-allocation decisions based largely on volatility measures—can create a painful cycle. The very trigger that prompts an allocation shift away from equities is itself influenced by the resulting sale. And volatility begins to feed on itself”, said Brugman and Atkin.

There’s evidence that more managers are making decisions based largely on changes in market volatility. The firm looked at allocation changes over time, based on the implied equity exposure across different mutual fund categories, examining both high-risk and low-risk environments. Brugman and Atkin found that reductions in equity exposure have become noticeably larger since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.

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In fact, the downward shifts for tactical allocation strategies have almost doubled in size. It’s not surprising that tactical strategies make adjustments, but the bigger moves today are notable, explain the experts. Even world allocation strategies, which largely left their equity allocations alone pre-crisis, have begun to make significant equity reductions.

“Our analysis also suggests that portfolio shifts aren’t just bigger than before, but they’re also happening faster when volatility rises. This helps make volatility spikes more pronounced. The August episode confirmed this: selling pressure due to a collective decision to de-risk likely made the first few days more severe. Before August 24, when risk was below average, the group of strategies we isolated for this analysis had an average overweight to equity of 9%.Shortly after the spike in risk they were significantly underweight, averaging 15% less equity exposure than is typical”, point out.

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The Problem of Volatility Tunnel Vision

One likely reason for the rush for the exits is that many risk-managed strategies exclusively use volatility gauges as a simplified trigger for making allocation changes. Because this systematic approach is so common, it creates significant selling momentum in equities when risk starts to rise and the signal turns red. This risk “tunnel vision” can lead to even sharper moves in the very metrics used to determine portfolio positioning.

Brugman and Atkin don’t think these type of asset-allocation triggers are robust enough. It’s important to determine if a sudden change in the risk environment is temporary or long-lasting. That knowledge can make a portfolio manager less likely to make the classic mistake: trend-following and selling into distress at a market trough.

A Holistic Process Must Integrate More than Risk Signals

One way to tackle this problem is to include both expected risk and expected return across asset classes in quantitative analysis. It’s also important not to leave fundamental judgement behind, and to consider how technical factors in the market impact the asset allocation equation.

All things considered, AB thinks it makes sense to be modestly underweight equities in the current environment. Volatility is above average, but we think the initial spike may have been exacerbated by indiscriminate selling from risk-managed strategies. Stalling growth in emerging markets and falling commodity demand may not be as much of a spillover risk for developed economies as some investors may think.

“In turbulent times like these, the ability to be dynamic in shifting equity beta can be very helpful. And volatility is a valuable signal that helps inform that decision. The key is to make sure that the trigger for shifting beta isn’t overly sensitive to changes in volatility alone”, concluded.

Old Mutual GI Provides Answers in Boston for 2016, a Year Full of Uncertainties About “What the World holds in Store for Fund Managers”

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Old Mutual GI ofrece en Boston respuestas para un 2016 lleno de incertidumbres sobre "lo que deparará el mundo para los gestores"
Christine Johnson, Head of Fixed Income - See photos. Old Mutual GI Provides Answers in Boston for 2016, a Year Full of Uncertainties About "What the World holds in Store for Fund Managers"

Old Mutual Global Investors recently held its annual client’s conference at the Taj Boston Hotel. The meeting was attended by more than 60 clients from around the world who were able to hear about the management ideas, which the company is developing for each of its different strategies.

During the first session, five of the top OMGI fund managers from London, Hong Kong, and Edinburgh, explained their views on the market’s most important current issues. Therefore, the rate hike by the Fed and its impact on assets, volatility, problems in China, the profitability of global fixed income, and energy prices were some of the issues on the table in the first panel.

“We met here in Boston a year ago to discuss how we saw the end of the year and what are our prospects were for 2015. Today, we can say that the predictions we made then have been met only in part, and that in 2016 we are going to continue to see a high level of uncertainty as to what the world holds in store for asset managers,” said Chris Stapleton, head of distribution for the Americas Offshore market.

Christine Johnson, Head of Fixed Income, Josh Crabb, Head of Asian Equities, Ross Oxley, Head of Absolute Return strategies, Justin Wells, Global Equities Investment Director, and Lee Freeman-Shor, fund manager and author of the book “The Art of Execution: How the world’s best investors get it wrong and still make millions in the markets”, reviewed the movements carried out in their portfolios in order to adapt the portfolio to the current environment.

“Each team and each strategy has its own vision, and I think this is the key to our success, and reflects the talents of our portfolio managers. If you follow the path marked by a CIO it would be much more difficult to reach the levels of profitability that our funds currently offer,” explained Allan MacLeod, Head of International Distribution.

ConsulTree Celebrates the Opening of a New Office in Argentina

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ConsulTree celebra la apertura de una nueva oficina en Argentina
ConsulTree opening in Argentina - Courtesy Photo. ConsulTree Celebrates the Opening of a New Office in Argentina

ConsulTree International, a Leadership and Talent Development consulting founded in United States announced the opening of a new office in Argentina as the most recent expansion of ConsulTree International’s presence in Latin America. 

The launch ceremony was held two weeks ago at the exclusive Palacio Duhau in Buenos Aires, with a Cocktail reception attended by a selected group of human resources professionals.  

The local partners, Eduardo Cappello -managing director for the new office, with over 17 years in the business- and Paula Valente -Senior Consultant and Partner, Human Resources & Talent Development Specialist, with over 15 years of experience in leadership roles-, joined Luisa Guzman, CEO of ConsulTree International, who spoke about the New Global Trends in Development.

The opening of the Argentina office comes in response to proven demand from the existing client base comprised of multinationals based in South Florida for extended service in the region.  “We are excited to lead the expansion of ConsulTree through a local presence in Argentina” said Luisa Guzman.

Guzman, with over 20 years of experience in Management Consulting, Human Resources, Organizational Development, Talent Acquisition and Leadership Development, is the founder of ConsulTree whose headquarters is in Miami and is present in Peru, Chile, Honduras, United Kingdom and Spain.