Pixabay CC0 Public DomainCity of Ho Chi Min, Vietnam. Ho Chi Min
The key theme across Asia continues to be digitalization, supported by an increase in IPOs across e-commerce, mobility, and FinTech. Chris Chan, Portfolio Manager of the New Capital Asia Future Leaders Fund, shares his thoughts for 2022 for the Asian equity sector.
2021 was a tough year for Asian markets Compared to the S&P500, Asian markets underperformed by about 30% (year-to-date – 16/12/21). The key element driving this underperformance was the Chinese stock market. However, going into 2022, we are much more constructive on the Chinese market.
There are a three key reasons for this. First and foremost: valuations. If you look at Chinese valuations compared to the rest of Asia and the US markets, historically speaking, it remains very attractive.
Secondly, in December 2021, the PBOC came out for very supportive for monetary easing. When you look back, typically there is a very strong correlation between the monetary easing cycle and Chinese stock market returns. Therefore, we expect this to be a positive stimulus for the China markets for 2022.
Thirdly, when you look at what’s driven the drawdown, it’s largely Chinese Internet names due to the pressures of negative regulation. When you look over the past few months, you can see that the incremental regulatory news flow is much less than it was. We expect this to continue and believe will act as a catalyst for the large cap Chinese tech names to recover.
We do expect bottom up earnings to remain weak, particularly in the property and the consumer sectors, at least for Q1 so we are looking at Q2 onwards for recovery on the fundamental side.
Outside China, we remain constructive on India with valuations historically high given the fact that the market has rallied about 30% (YTD 16/12/21). In the ASEAN region, we’ve been increasing our weight in markets like Vietnam and Indonesia, primarily because when you look at the latent recovery coming out of lockdown, arguably ASEAN has been further behind the rest of Asia, and therefore has more to offer for 2022, as confirmed by superior real GDP growth rates compared to the rest of the region.
The overriding thematic that we see across Asia continues to be digitalization, both in terms of digital services in India and Southeast Asia, supported by the increase in tech or digital IPOs across e-commerce, mobility, and FinTech. Within China, electric vehicles and solar energy remain the key structural trends benefiting a variety of companies across the supply chain.
You can also listen to Chris Chan, Portfolio Manager of the New Capital Asia Future Leaders Fund, rated five stars by Morningstar, as he shares his thoughts for 2022 for the Asian equity sector in this video.
UBS and Wealthfront, an automated wealth management provider serving the next generation of investors, have signed an agreement whereby the bank will acquire the plataform in an all-cash transaction valued at 1.4 billion dollars.
UBS has revealed that through this acquisition, it will accelerate its growth ambitions in the US, broaden its reach among affluent investors and expand its distribution and capabilities. To do so Wealthfront will become a wholly owned subsidiary of UBS and will operate as a business within UBS Global Wealth Management Americas.
The transaction is currently expected to close in the second half of 2022, subject to closing conditions including regulatory approvals.
With over $27 billion in assets under management and more than 470,000 clients in the US, “Wealthfront’s award-winning, state-of-the-art platform helps clients easily manage their wealth by providing access to financial planning capabilities, banking services and investment management solutions”, the firms say.
Following the transaction, Wealthfront and its clients will benefit from access to UBS’s leading wealth management capabilities, including the UBS Chief Investment Office’s best-in-class thought leadership, an unrivaled global footprint, and deep products and services shelf.
“Adding Wealthfront’s capabilities and client base to our global investment ecosystem will significantly boost our ability to grow our business in the US,” commented Ralph Hamers, Group Chief Executive Officer of UBS.
The platform’s primary focus is on millennial and Gen Z investors, a client segment with significant domestic growth potential. With more than 130 million investors in the US alone, millennials and the Gen Z population together comprise a high growth segment that will own an increasing share of the world’s wealth.
In addition, Wealthfront will expand UBS’s existing offering through the firm’s Wealth Advice Center, which focuses on serving core affluent clients, and its Workplace Wealth Solutions business, which works with employees of corporate clients on equity plan participation, financial education and retirement programs.
“Partnering with UBS will allow Wealthfront to offer our clients additional value-added services and best in class research that will help accelerate our vision to make growing wealth delightfully easy,” said David Fortunato, Chief Executive Officer of Wealthfront.
Foto cedidaMatt Christensen, director global de Sostenibilidad e Inversión de Impacto de Allianz GI. . Allianz GI crea una unidad dedicada a las inversiones de impacto en los mercados privados
To enhance its commitment to impact investing, Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI) has announced the creation of a dedicated Private Markets Impact unit within its Sustainable investment platform. This new area will be led by Matt Christensen, Global Head of Sustainability and Impact Investing.
The Private Markets Impact unit combines existing equity and debt investing expertise with a newly created impact measurement and management capability. The firm has revealed in a press release that this 12- strong unit, which will be overseen by Christensen, will complete the Sustainability platform created in 2021 to push the boundaries of sustainability for its clients.
Three impact teams
Martin Ewald, Lead Portfolio Manager, heads the Private Equity Impact Investing team, which seeks to invest in real assets and private companies that contribute to solve global environmental and/or social issues. He is currently responsible for EUR 500 million committed through the Allianz Impact Investment Fund and AfricaGrow initiative, and also the Emerging Market Climate Action strategy (EMCA) launched at COP26 by AllianzGI in cooperation with the European Investment Bank.
In this sense, AllianzGI reveals that with a target size of EUR 500 million, EMCA will invest in climate-focused investment funds and projects active in emerging markets and developing countries, with a focus on climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and access to electricity.
Meanwhile, Nadia Nikolova, Lead Portfolio Manager,is heading the Development Finance & Private Debt Impact Investing team, which currently invests in de-risked sustainable loans in emerging and frontier markets. The team brings together the expertise from the AllianzGI Private Credit platform with an impact investing lens. It focuses on building partnerships with Development Finance Institutions and Agencies, Donors and commercial investors to mobilize private capital for sustainable development, and already raised over USD 2 billion since 2017.
Also announced at the recent COP 26, the team manages the vehicle for the recently announced Managed Co-Lending Portfolio Program (MCPP) between Allianz and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. “The new program, MCPP One Planet is the world’s first cross-sectoral portfolio of emerging-market loans aligned with the Paris Agreement”, the company explains.
In addition, AllianzGI announced the creation of an Impact Measurement & Management team, led by Diane Mak, and the launch of an impact framework to facilitate the due diligence and selection of investments that contribute to material and positive impact. The approach supports rigorous measurement and management of impact over the lifecycle of the investment to ensure that impact is being delivered. Diane Mak joined AllianzGI in August from Y Analytics where she oversaw TPG Global’s impact assessments and management activities.
“Impact investing is fast-growing out of its niche. Investors want to see a positive change for the planet while generating a return, and impact investing offers a solution to these twin goals. The future growth trajectory of impact investing depends on asset managers demonstrating how the impact can be measured and reported. Our new Impact Measurement & Management approach enables us to measure impact in private equity and debt investments and will allow us to develop further our offering according to the best standards”, said Christensen.
Next Tuesday, February 1, at 10:30 am EDT, Funds Society will host a new Virtual Investment Summit entitled “What Is the Next for the U.S. Equity Market by 2022?”.
Jerónimo Nin, Head of Trading and Investments at Nobilis, will present this event, which will feature speakers David Bianco, CFA, Chief Investment Officer-Americas at DWS, and Jesús Martín-del-Burgo, Head of Coverage-Latin America at DWS.
U.S. equity investors have much to digest heading into 2022 around “transitory” inflation, the speed of monetary policy changes, variants, and corporate earnings. How do all these data points then come together to present a picture of the stock market for the year ahead? This VIS will address these issues.
You can register at this link to attend the virtual event.
Host
Jerónimo Nin, Head of Trading and Investments at Nobilis has more than 15 years of experience in financial markets. He holds a degree in Economics from the Universidad de la República and is CFA charterholder. He has been an investment manager at Nobilis since the company’s inception, where he is responsible for supervising the model portfolios and managing two Fund of Funds in Uruguay, with AUM above 220 million dollars.
Nin was Chief Investment Officer of Integration at AFAP. He has extensive experience in active portfolio management and investment decision making. In addition, he worked at BEVSA and has given several lectures locally and internationally on investment decision making in the securities markets and the pension system.
Speakers
David Bianco, Chief Investment Officer-Americas at DWS has more than two decades of investment experience, having rejoined DWS in 2012 in his current role. Prior to that he was Chief U.S. Equity Strategist at Deutsche Bank and, before rejoining, at BofA Merrill Lynch and at UBS. Prior to being chief strategist, Bianco served as the Valuation & Accounting Strategist at UBS, a Quantitative Strategist at Deutsche Bank and an industry equity analyst at firms such as Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and at NatWest Markets. He earned a BS in Economics from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and is a CFA Charterholder.
Jesús Martín-del-Burgo, Head of Coverage-Latin America at DWS, joined DWS in 2006 with 7 years of industry experience. Prior to his current role, he was Head of Sales for Chile and Peru and before that, he served as Head of Product Management for Iberia and Latin America and as a Risk Manager for DWS Investments in Madrid. Before joining, he worked as a Senior Investment Consultant for Insurance Companies and in Equity Sales at various institutions. Additionally, Martín-del-Burgo served as Academic Co-Director and Lecturer at Instituto de Estudios Bursátiles (IEB) from 2007 to 2011. He earned a BA in Business Administration from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Master’s Degree in Portfolio Management and MBA in Banking and Finance from Instituto de Estudios Bursátiles.
Foto cedidaEquipo de Unicorn Strategic Partners. Foto cedida
Calamos Investments, a global investment management firm with more than 40 billion dollars in assets under management, has signed a strategic agreement with Unicorn Strategic Partners for the distribution of its UCITS investment solutions in the Latin American region.
In a press release, Unicorn revealed that it will serve both the retail and institutional business. Until now, Calamos covered the Latin American business under the guidance of Carlos Soriano, Head of US Offshore and Latam, who will now be responsible for the Unicorn relationship and will work directly with the team to continue to grow the business in the region.
Unicorn SP was launched at the end of 2017 and has become one of the premier fund distribution firms within the US Offshore and Latam market. They have a team of 16 professionals based in NYC, Miami, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Santiago de Chile.
Florencia Bunge, partner in charge of the Latam retail business, commented that such an event is “a great milestone” for Unicorn SP, as it continues to enhance the list of high conviction strategies. In her view, these funds provide an integral and comprehensive solution to client’s investment portfolios in the region. “Our objective at Unicorn SP is to offer best-in-class strategies and avoiding any overlap between our menu of offerings at all times”, she added.
“Calamos is one of the most recognized firms in the industry for its Convertible strategy. Many clients in the region are familiar with Calamos and we are certain that they will greatly appreciate the daily coverage and presence of a local team”, Bunge concluded.
Alex. Brown, a division of Raymond James, has welcomed Fernando Campoo in Miami. He joins the firm from Citi, where he worked for 21 years.
“I couldn’t be prouder to announce that Fernando Campoo has joined the Alex Brown/ Raymond James family as managing director to serve clients in Central America. The sky’s the limit, Fernando,” posted Eric Termini, Alex Brown’s director for South Florida.
Campoo worked since 1997 for Jefferson Pilot Securities in Fort Wayne and then moved on to other firms in Windsor and Puerto Rico until landing at Citi, according to his BrokerCheck profile. He managed a portfolio of Central American clients with AUMs of approximately $200 million, according to industry sources.
Pixabay CC0 Public DomainEl año más alcista para el M&A. Toro
2021 was a great year for the U.S stock market and economy. Stocks were up for the month, 4th quarter and year and posted their biggest three year gain since 1999. The strength of the S&P 500’s rally is reflected in its 70 record-high closes during the year, second only to 77 in 1995 back to 1928. The U.S. economy staged a strong recovery as rising demand offset supply chain and microchip disruptions, rising prices, labor shortages, and the drag of mutating COVID-19 infections on the services industries. More economic reopening’s, the consumer wealth effect, and inventory rebuilds bode well for 2022.
The above consensus jump in the core U.S. inflation rate took the FOMC by surprise and pushed the 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield up 60 basis points on the year to 1.51%, the most since 2013, when the yield rose 127 basis points to 3.03%. On May 22, 2013 Fed Chair Bernanke announced the start of a reduction of its quantitative easing bond buying and sparked the bond market’s ‘taper tantrum.’.
Chinese President Xi Jinping focused on the need to keep a “strategic focus” in his 2022 New Year address: “We must always keep a long-term perspective, remain mindful of potential risks, maintain strategic focus and determination, and ‘attain the broad and great while addressing the delicate and minute’.”
M&A activity remained vibrant in the fourth quarter of 2021, totaling $1.5 trillion, the sixth consecutive quarter that M&A exceeded $1 trillion and the second largest quarter ever. The strong fourth quarter brought full year M&A activity to $5.9 trillion, the strongest year on record and an increase of 64% compared to 2020 levels. Excluding SPAC acquisitions, which totaled $600 billion, or 10% of activity, 2021 M&A activity totaled $5.3 trillion, still the strongest year for mergers on record. We believe the drivers remain in place for continued robust deal activity in 2022 and beyond.
2021 proved to be a somewhat lackluster year for convertibles globally. After record performance over the past few years, convertibles finally took a breather, resetting valuations and terms. While new issuance continued to be strong this year, some of it was at unattractive terms. Those large issues that came with no coupons and premiums in excess of 50% tended to underperform and drag the market with it. Finally, convertibles have traditionally been favored by growing companies and the rotation from growth to value played a role. With rising interest rates, growth valuations started to seem a bit excessive and while convertibles outperformed their underlying equities as they moved lower, performance relative to the broader equity markets was disappointing.
Looking forward, we are optimistic for our market this year. First, 2021 was a bit of a reset. The market rejected some of the excessive terms and with growth valuations coming back down to earth, we are starting to see some attractive values amongst the carnage. While rising rates may force some growth valuations lower still, they set the table for more attractive issuance in the future. Rising rates have traditionally been good for the market, with convertibles moving higher each of the last 10 times we have seen a 100 bps increase in 10 year treasuries. While there may be more interest rate sensitivity this year, the majority of the market will still be driven by underlying equities.
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GAMCO MERGER ARBITRAGE
GAMCO Merger Arbitrage UCITS Fund, launched in October 2011, is an open-end fund incorporated in Luxembourg and compliant with UCITS regulation. The team, dedicated strategy, and record dates back to 1985. The objective of the GAMCO Merger Arbitrage Fund is to achieve long-term capital growth by investing primarily in announced equity merger and acquisition transactions while maintaining a diversified portfolio. The Fund utilizes a highly specialized investment approach designed principally to profit from the successful completion of proposed mergers, takeovers, tender offers, leveraged buyouts and other types of corporate reorganizations. Analyzes and continuously monitors each pending transaction for potential risk, including: regulatory, terms, financing, and shareholder approval.
Merger investments are a highly liquid, non-market correlated, proven and consistent alternative to traditional fixed income and equity securities. Merger returns are dependent on deal spreads. Deal spreads are a function of time, deal risk premium, and interest rates. Returns are thus correlated to interest rate changes over the medium term and not the broader equity market. The prospect of rising rates would imply higher returns on mergers as spreads widen to compensate arbitrageurs. As bond markets decline (interest rates rise), merger returns should improve as capital allocation decisions adjust to the changes in the costs of capital.
Broad Market volatility can lead to widening of spreads in merger positions, coupled with our well-researched merger portfolios, offer the potential for enhanced IRRs through dynamic position sizing. Daily price volatility fluctuations coupled with less proprietary capital (the Volcker rule) in the U.S. have contributed to improving merger spreads and thus, overall returns. Thus our fund is well positioned as a cash substitute or fixed income alternative.
Our objectives are to compound and preserve wealth over time, while remaining non-correlated to the broad global markets. We created our first dedicated merger fund 32 years ago. Since then, our merger performance has grown client assets at an annualized rate of approximately 10.7% gross and 7.6% net since 1985. Today, we manage assets on behalf of institutional and high net worth clients globally in a variety of fund structures and mandates.
Class I USD – LU0687944552 Class I EUR – LU0687944396 Class A USD – LU0687943745 Class A EUR – LU0687943661 Class R USD – LU1453360825 Class R EUR – LU1453361476
GAMCO ALL CAP VALUE
The GAMCO All Cap Value UCITS Fund launched in May, 2015 utilizes Gabelli’s its proprietary PMV with a Catalyst™ investment methodology, which has been in place since 1977. The Fund seeks absolute returns through event driven value investing. Our methodology centers around fundamental, research-driven, value based investing with a focus on asset values, cash flows and identifiable catalysts to maximize returns independent of market direction. The fund draws on the experience of its global portfolio team and 35+ value research analysts.
GAMCO is an active, bottom-up, value investor, and seeks to achieve real capital appreciation (relative to inflation) over the long term regardless of market cycles. Our value-oriented stock selection process is based on the fundamental investment principles first articulated in 1934 by Graham and Dodd, the founders of modern security analysis, and further augmented by Mario Gabelli in 1977 with his introduction of the concepts of Private Market Value (PMV) with a Catalyst™ into equity analysis. PMV with a Catalyst™ is our unique research methodology that focuses on individual stock selection by identifying firms selling below intrinsic value with a reasonable probability of realizing their PMV’s which we define as the price a strategic or financial acquirer would be willing to pay for the entire enterprise. The fundamental valuation factors utilized to evaluate securities prior to inclusion/exclusion into the portfolio, our research driven approach views fundamental analysis as a three pronged approach: free cash flow (earnings before, interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, minus the capital expenditures necessary to grow/maintain the business); earnings per share trends; and private market value (PMV), which encompasses on and off balance sheet assets and liabilities. Our team arrives at a PMV valuation by a rigorous assessment of fundamentals from publicly available information and judgement gained from meeting management, covering all size companies globally and our comprehensive, accumulated knowledge of a variety of sectors. We then identify businesses for the portfolio possessing the proper margin of safety and research variables from our deep research universe.
Class I USD – LU1216601648 Class I EUR – LU1216601564 Class A USD – LU1216600913 Class A EUR – LU1216600673 Class R USD – LU1453359900 Class R EUR – LU1453360155
GAMCO CONVERTIBLE SECURITIES
GAMCO Convertible Securities’ objective is to seek to provide current income as well as long term capital appreciation through a total return strategy by investing in a diversified portfolio of global convertible securities.
The Fund leverages the firm’s history of investing in dedicated convertible security portfolios since 1979.
The fund invests in convertible securities, as well as other instruments that have economic characteristics similar to such securities, across global markets (but the fund will not invest in contingent convertible notes). The fund may invest in securities of any market capitalization or credit quality, including up to 100% in below investment grade or unrated securities, and may from time to time invest a significant amount of its assets in securities of smaller companies. Convertible securities may include any suitable convertible instruments such as convertible bonds, convertible notes or convertible preference shares.
By actively managing the fund and investing in convertible securities, the investment manager seeks the opportunity to participate in the capital appreciation of underlying stocks, while at the same time relying on the fixed income aspect of the convertible securities to provide current income and reduced price volatility, which can limit the risk of loss in a down equity market.
Class I USD LU2264533006
Class I EUR LU2264532966
Class A USD LU2264532701
Class A EUR LU2264532610
Class R USD LU2264533345
Class R EUR LU2264533261
Class F USD LU2264533691
Class F EUR LU2264533428
Disclaimer: The information and any opinions have been obtained from or are based on sources believed to be reliable but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. No responsibility can be accepted for any consequential loss arising from the use of this information. The information is expressed at its date and is issued only to and directed only at those individuals who are permitted to receive such information in accordance with the applicable statutes. In some countries the distribution of this publication may be restricted. It is your responsibility to find out what those restrictions are and observe them.
Some of the statements in this presentation may contain or be based on forward looking statements, forecasts, estimates, projections, targets, or prognosis (“forward looking statements”), which reflect the manager’s current view of future events, economic developments and financial performance. Such forward looking statements are typically indicated by the use of words which express an estimate, expectation, belief, target or forecast. Such forward looking statements are based on an assessment of historical economic data, on the experience and current plans of the investment manager and/or certain advisors of the manager, and on the indicated sources. These forward looking statements contain no representation or warranty of whatever kind that such future events will occur or that they will occur as described herein, or that such results will be achieved by the fund or the investments of the fund, as the occurrence of these events and the results of the fund are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The actual portfolio, and thus results, of the fund may differ substantially from those assumed in the forward looking statements. The manager and its affiliates will not undertake to update or review the forward looking statements contained in this presentation, whether as result of new information or any future event or otherwise.
Fernando Mattar Beyruti has taken over as the new Global Head of Itaú Private Bank.
“It is with great joy that I share the information that I have assumed, as of now, the position of Global Head of Itaú Private Bank”, the executive posted this week on his LinkedIn account.
Beyruti has been based in Miami since 2019 when he was appointed CEO of Itaú USA. However, he has an extensive career within the bank, originating in his native Brazil.
“I want to thank the entire team at Itaú Private, with whom I am extremely proud and pleased to work side by side and with the certainty that together we are building the best global platform to meet the specific needs of our clients – in Brazil and around the world”, he added.
With more than 20 years at Itaú, Beyruti was senior Private Banker, Superintendent at Itaú Private Bank, and Director of Itaú Asset Management in São Paulo.
His newly assumed position had been vacant since March 2021 when Luiz Severiano Ribeiro left the company.
Dynasty Financial Partners has filed for a public offering to raise up to $100 million, according to the document disclosed to the SEC. The firm is offering shares of Class A common stock, but it hasn’t been priced yet.
“We intend to use a portion of the net proceeds of this offering to purchase common units of Dynasty Financial Partners, LLC from existing Dynasty Financial Partners, LLC unitholders, at a per-unit price equal to the per-share price paid by the underwriters for shares of the Class A common stock in this offering”, reads the IPO document filed with the SEC.
The RIA services platform also intends to use any remaining net proceeds to facilitate the growth of its existing business, to make strategic acquisitions of businesses that are complementary “and for other general corporate purposes”.
Dynasty highlighted that its revenues increased from $32.7 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2020 to $49.2 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2021, representing an increase of 50%. “Our net income was $10.6 million and $2.9 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, respectively, an increase of 266%”, the document reveals.
As of September 30, 2021, the Dynasty network includes 46 Network Partner Firms representing more than 292 financial advisors who maintain $64.6 billion in Billable AUA on the Dynasty platform, with an average AUA per advisor of $221 million.
Panamanian financial services firm Inexco has announced the opening of a RIA office in Miami.
“Inexco is pleased to open a US-based Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) with dedicated investment services for financial advisors throughout Latin America and the state of Florida and their clients who wish to have top-notch service and advice,” posted Luis Alfredo Cercos, CEO, on his LinkedIn account.
Inexco obtained SEC approval on January 14, 2020 for its Brickell Avenue office, according to information available on the U.S. regulator’s website.
The wealth banking, investment and securities brokerage firm is focused on providing financial services to a select base of affluent clients, corporations and financial intermediaries in Latin America. The company also focuses on affluent and high net worth individuals and institutions, as well as financial intermediaries and their clients.
This market movement is in addition to several Latin American companies that have landed in Miami, such as Puente or Bancolombia, which is still subject to regulatory approvals.
