Articles and Features

At last month’s Lyxor 4th Annual Hedge Fund Conference in Paris, an interesting paper dealing with the way that market exchanges operate in single and fragmented markets and the social consequences that investing in speed has on investors, was presented by Emiliano Pagnotta (pictured). The paper, “Competing on Speed”, was written by Pagnotta and Thomas Philippon, both of NYU Stern School of Business. »

Managers of European money market funds denominated in euros and pounds face a smaller pool of high-quality bank assets that cannot be easily replaced with corporate or sovereign debt, according to Fitch. For now, concentration risk is manageable for MMFs, but at the expense of more active portfolio management. »

January was a relatively successful month across strategies for the stable of funds managed by HSBC Alternative Investments Limited (HAIL), although the mood was more one of cautious optimism during a breakfast presentation hosted on Thursday 2 February by Peter Rigg (pictured), Global Head of the HSBC Alternative Investment Group, and William Benjamin, Head of European Research. »

Baring's Marino Valensise examines the key trends being followed by institutional investors in 2012. »

By Petrina Smyth and Noeleen Ruddy (pictured) – As a leading jurisdiction for the establishment of investment funds and structured finance vehicles, Ireland has seen commodity funds established for many years using regulated Qualifying Investor Funds, ranging from funds investing in precious metals to agricultural crop funds. »

Asset classes promising better than average returns attracted strong inflows during the final week of January with flows into EPFR Global-tracked Emerging Market Equity Funds hitting a 43 week high, Municipal Bond Funds enjoying their best week in over five years and High Yield Bond Funds taking in another USD2.7 billion. Money Market Funds, whose seven day yield remains stuck around 0.02%, posted their biggest outflow since early August. »

The recent performance of European flexible allocation funds calls for improvement in many investment processes and questions the capacity of some managers to be tactical allocators, says a new report from Fitch Ratings. »

Old Mutual Asset Management's Julian Ide outlines the themes driving institutional investment in 2012. »

Alternative investment group Insch Capital Management has launched its proprietary Risk to Revenue (R2R) model, which provides an in-depth analysis of the traditional asset management industry, where many firms are making more in management fees than their investors are receiving in returns. »

According to the UK Financial Services Ownership, Value and M&A report from TheCityUK, UK Trade & Investment and IMAS Corporate Finance, foreign owned firms make up nearly a third (30%) of UK financial services groups worth over GBP5m in the investment sector. »