Fund Strategy
23 February 2009

  • ‘Expert’ views that spark bad solutions

    23 Feb 2009

    Attacks on greedy financiers are becoming so shrill it is worth revisiting some financial basics. Sadly, most financial “experts” are guilty of what could be called “one-dimensional thinking”.

  • Analysis: Exports a barrier to German growth

    27 Feb 2009

    Exports, once one of the key drivers of Germany’s economy, are proving to be a never-ending obstacle to the country’s growth prospects.

  • Analysis: Bernanke testimony

    25 Feb 2009

    If America is to achieve economic recovery, it must combine fiscal stimulus with strong government action to stabilise financial institutions and markets, said Ben Bernanke, the chairman of America’s Federal Reserve, in a statement to congress yesterday.

  • Analysis: emerging Europe’s new crunch

    23 Feb 2009

    It is a danger emerging markets analysts have long been aware of, says Adrian Pankiw, a strategist at Henderson Global Investors. But this week, it burst onto the wider scene: emerging Europe is plunging into a credit spiral set to rival the severity of the downturn in any other region. And via bank subsidiaries, the region could drag western European economies down with it.

  • Anomie in the UK

    25 Feb 2009

    To understand yourself better it is often useful to look at how others see you. From that perspective an article on Britain’s sudden economic decline in Der Spiegel, a leading Germany weekly news magazine, is instructive.

  • Assessing the case for diversification

    23 Feb 2009

    Portfolio theory determines that an investor is more likely to reap rewards from uncorrelated stocks and although many managers were hit by “diworsification” the theory is not discredited.

  • Axa continues revamp with blue-chip vehicle

    23 Feb 2009

    Axa Framlington has launched a UK Blue Chip Equity Income fund for Jamie Forbes-Wilson.

  • Barings global trust to change name and sector

    23 Feb 2009

    Barings plans to change the name of its Directional Global Bond trust and move it into the Investment Management Association (IMA) Absolute Return sector.

  • Bond popularity soars

    27 Feb 2009

    Bond funds saw net retail inflows of £1.4 billion in January as investors piled into the asset class, according to the Investment Management Association (IMA).

  • Cazenove sees gloom until 2010

    26 Feb 2009

    Managers gave a gloomy outlook on the world economy at a Cazenove conference this morning as Richard Jeffrey, the chief investment officer, warned that the recession will be deeper and longer than current forecasts.

  • Cazenove to launch European absolute return fund

    24 Feb 2009

    Cazenove will look at expanding its absolute return range with a European launch towards the end of the year, Chris Rice, the European fund manager, told clients in a conference call this morning.

  • Correction

    23 Feb 2009

    The report headed “Henderson global fund brought to the UK market” in Fund Strategy last week incorrectly stated that Henderson Global Investors has definitive plans to bring its Global Equity Income Fund to the British retail market.The group is in discussions with investors over the possibility of making the fund available to British retail investors later in the year.

  • Correction

    23 Feb 2009

    In last week’s Fund Strategy, the Cover story featured incorrect data in the table Global hedge fund performance by strategy.

  • E.Tr@der

    23 Feb 2009

    I’d love to come to Cheltenham. Are you sure you can afford a box? Business can’t be that good.

  • Experts predict worse to come as Japan slumps again

    23 Feb 2009

    Since the asset bubble burst at the start of the 1990s Japan has seldom rewarded optimism from investors and once again the land of the rising sun seems set to disappoint the bulls.

  • Falling for compensation

    24 Feb 2009

    Had a bad fall that was not your fault? Broken a bone because of a slippery surface? Fancy some compensation?

  • Fees under the spotlight

    26 Feb 2009

    Given the economic backdrop it is hardly surprising that funds' fees are under the spotlight. The impending entrance of Vanguard, a giant American index tracking firm, into the retail market has led to suggestions that a price war could engulf the retail industry.

  • Firm reports rise in Isa sales

    23 Feb 2009

    Brewin Dolphin, a private client stockbroker, has recorded a 10% increase in Isa sales in the tax year so far, compared with the same period last year.From April 6, 2008, the start of the tax year, to February 18, 2009, Brewin Dolphin took in £91m of Isa subscriptions.

  • Firms told to prepare for “wave” of claims

    23 Feb 2009

    Fund management groups and IFAs are being told to prepare themselves for a wave of compensation claims and even litigation from “disgruntled investors”.

  • Fund Manager's Diary

    23 Feb 2009

    Monday: Matthew Vaight and I meet the chief executive officer and chief financial officer of VCP – a Brazilian pulp company.

  • Funds forsake ‘sick’ Europe for US

    23 Feb 2009

    Fund managers have turned their backs on Europe, according to the Merrill Lynch Fund Manager ­Survey of European managers.

  • Gartmore to launch UK absolute return fund

    25 Feb 2009

    Gartmore is adding to its absolute return range with a fund focused on British equities, set for launch in April. The fund will be based on Gartmore’s Octanis hedge fund and will be run by the same manager, Ben Wallace, who has managed the strategy for five years. Richard Pursglove, the head of UK retail at the group, says that the fund will be more directional in its approach, differing from the recently launched European Absolute Return fund, which has a market-neutral ...

  • GDP in OECD falls to all-time low

    23 Feb 2009

    GDP in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) area suffered its largest fall since records began in 1960 in the fourth quarter of 2008. According to preliminary estimates, GDP in the OECD fell by 1.5% in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter of 2008.In America GDP fell by 1%, in Britain it fell 1.5%, while in Japan the decline was more pronounced with GDP down 3.3%.

  • German business sentiment worst in 18 years

    24 Feb 2009

    Sentiment among German businesses worsened again in February. A sentiment index produced by the Ifo Institute for Economic Research this month reached its lowest level since Ifo began its surveys in 1991.

  • Governance takes centre stage at F&C

    26 Feb 2009

    The global economic crisis and outrage at excessive risk-taking in the banking system have pushed governance problems firmly to centre-stage, says Karina Litvack, the head of governance and sustainable investment at F&C Investments.

  • Group plans changes to equity range

    23 Feb 2009

    Marlborough Fund Managers has announced a series of changes to its British equity retail range, including a proposed merger of the firm’s UK Equity Growth and Special Situations unit trusts.

  • Harewood launches income fund

    25 Feb 2009

    Harewood Solutions has launched a listed income fund offering a yield up to 8% of the Net Asset Value (NAV) each year.

  • Henderson closes two funds

    26 Feb 2009

    Henderson Global Investors is closing its offshore property and pan-European bond funds. The group says that the funds have been unable to yield the performance they targeted, while assets under management have fallen dramatically.

  • Henderson reports drop in profits

    26 Feb 2009

    Henderson Global Investors has reported a 9% fall in operating profit before tax in 2008 compared with a year earlier.

  • Hope emerges from reserve position

    23 Feb 2009

    Analysts predict emerging countries, especially in Asia and Latin America, are likely to recover quicker from the downturn as they resort to their large dollar reserves to keep them going.

  • HSBC transfers Global Return to Cautious sector

    23 Feb 2009

    HSBC’s Open Global Return fund, managed by Nicholas Pothier, has switched from the Investment Management Association’s (IMA) Balanced Managed sector to Cautious Managed.

  • Ignis absolute return fund goes live

    23 Feb 2009

    Ignis has launched its long-awaited Argonaut European Absolute Return fund.

  • IMF can carry on lending

    27 Feb 2009

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it is confident it can continue lending despite the squeeze on its resources as a result of the global financial crisis.

  • Investment trust charges fall

    24 Feb 2009

    Closed-ended vehicles have seen their charges fall to as little as 0.23% as assets rise and performance fees are introduced, according to the Association of Investment Companies (AIC).

  • Investor confidence still negative, says IMA

    26 Feb 2009

    The Investment Management Association’s Great British Investor report showed only a modest drop in confidence since May last year, in the light of market and corporate turmoil.

  • Investors should stay in Asia, says Barings

    23 Feb 2009

    Investors could forgo some of the best returns if they stay out of the Asian equity markets for too long, according to an analysis of MSCI indices by Baring Asset Management.

  • It’s not that bad, argues MPC member

    24 Feb 2009

    The financial crisis so far parallels the experience of other recessions that occurred after the second world war, argued Andrew Sentance, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), in a speech (pdf) today.

  • Japanese exports slump

    25 Feb 2009

    Japan’s trade deficit has hit a record level as falling demand for Japanese goods caused exports to drop by 45.7%.

  • Manager focus: Alistair Thompson

    23 Feb 2009

    All things are relative, and at the moment this is particularly true for funds investing in the Asia Pacific region. The First State Asia Pacific Leaders fund, for example, lost 18% of its value within one year. Yet it remains at the best-performing fund in its sector.

  • Manager focus: Daniel Sacks

    24 Feb 2009

    Gold miners are one of the few sectors that will exhibit earnings growth in 2009, according to Daniel Sacks, the manager of the Investec Global Gold fund.

  • Manager focus: Ezra Sun

    25 Feb 2009

    Opinions on the direction of Asian markets differ.

  • Manager focus: James Abate

    27 Feb 2009

    James Abate has begun to shift out of high growth positions into cyclical stocks on his PSigma American Growth fund. He says that the market will reward the latter for profitability in 2010.

  • Manager focus: Stephen Adams

    26 Feb 2009

    Stephen Adams, the manager of Aegon’s UK Equity fund, expects up to 100 companies to come to the market with rights issues in 2009.

  • Manager trusts in regional rebound

    23 Feb 2009

    Martin Currie Pacific Trust tumbled last year – walloped by an underweighting in Japan as it outperformed the region in sterling terms – but John Millar, the manager, remains optimistic.

  • Managers welcome tactics to ease credit

    23 Feb 2009

    The government’s planned quantitative easing measures to stimulate the economy could bring bond yields down.

  • Manufacturing orders decline in Europe

    26 Feb 2009

    Industrial new orders fell by 5.2% in the eurozone in December, after dropping by 5.4% in November, statistics released by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, show.

  • More 1970s comparisons

    23 Feb 2009

    In this week’s cover story Sarah Coles notes that in the 1970s, the Chelsea Girl chain (now River Island) was making a reasonable profit during the crisis. The reason for this, said Paul Mumford, a senior manager at Cavendish Asset Management, was because younger people were still living with their parents, and had money in their pockets.

  • Mott buys back into property

    26 Feb 2009

    Bill Mott is buying back into the property sector in the conviction that rights issues in the sector will allow firms to buy assets at the bottom of the market.

  • Murray International discount narrows

    25 Feb 2009

    Murray International Trust brings positive news in its annual report, after narrowing its discount and increasing dividends in 2008.

  • Natural balance avoids a nasty fall

    23 Feb 2009

    The HSBC Open Global Return fund’s multi-asset approach helps it lower risk, says its manager. Its holdings are “strategic and static”, but 30% of them have been turned over in the past year.

  • New lead manager for M&G offshore portfolio

    23 Feb 2009

    M&G has promoted Dermot Kiernan to lead manager of its offshore Property fund as John Cartwright prepares to retire next week.

  • Obama promises economic fixes

    26 Feb 2009

    “You don’t need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day,” President Barack Obama said on Tuesday. He asked Congress to join him in doing whatever proves necessary to save the nation from an open-ended recession.

  • Panellists polarised over property

    23 Feb 2009

    Real estate remains an unpopular asset class with advisers. As an index confirms reports of falling values, two members of the AFI panel express divergent views on property investment.

  • Parallel lives

    23 Feb 2009

    The economic meltdown prompts commentators to compare this crisis with that of the 1970s. Sarah Coles examines the differences and similarities and asks whether any lessons have been learned.

  • Private Swiss bank unveils fund

    23 Feb 2009

    Pictet, a Swiss private bank, has launched a fund that combines eight investment ideas in one portfolio.Launched on February 3, the Pictet Funds (LUX) Global Megatrend Selection fund invests on an equally-weighted basis across the following sectors: water, timber, clean energy, security, biotechnology, digital communications, generics and premium brands.

  • Production falls again in America

    23 Feb 2009

    Industrial production in America fell by 10% year-on-year in January. Construction supplies were hit hardest, posting a year-on-year decline of 16.7%.Manufacturing was the industry group worst affected by the downturn, falling 2.5% over the month to 12.9% below its level in January 2008.In contrast, mining fell by only 0.8% while utilities enjoyed a modest year-on-year rise of 1.3%.

  • Rensburg manager set to run Gartmore funds

    23 Feb 2009

    John Anderson is joining Gartmore as head of credit, taking over four funds from Simon Surtees, whose future with the group is uncertain.

  • Resources on crisis

    23 Feb 2009

    The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has created a useful website on the financial and economic crisis. It pulls together information on such topics as employment, trade, key statistics and key publications.

  • Rise in equity exposure points to brighter outlook

    23 Feb 2009

    Fund managers are starting to boost equity exposure across their portfolios in a move that signals renewed optimism towards the asset class.

  • SCAM

    23 Feb 2009

    The chairman thinks it is time for a new enterprise but is advised to consider the public relations implications that have given rise to warnings of tenants running domestic cannabis farms.

  • Seventh suite from Investec

    23 Feb 2009

    Investec has launched a seventh suite of structured products, offering income or early kick-out payments, to allow advisers to tailor returns to clients’ profiles.

  • Should we yield to income’s allure?

    23 Feb 2009

    Tineke Frikkee, the manager of one of Britain’s biggest equity income funds, makes a strong case to investors for returning to a sector that they have shunned over the past few months.

  • Strategy boosts Jupiter Merlin funds

    23 Feb 2009

    Avoiding areas of leverage in the market has boosted the relative ­outperformance of Jupiter’s Merlin multi-manager funds over the past year.

  • Tasty package in a smooth wrapper

    23 Feb 2009

    Marlborough is coming to the aid of income-starved investors with a product designed to offer a net yield of up to 6.68% in a smoothed monthly stream. Will Jackson describes how it works.

  • Thames River pair pass £100m mark

    23 Feb 2009

    Assets managed by Robert Burdett and Gary Potter at Thames River Multi-Manager have passed £100m since the two managers launched the range in October 2007.Momentum in fund flows has increased in the past six months and this month saw the strongest start, according to Thames River. The group says the inflows have been spread across its range of five funds.

  • The myth of neo-liberalism

    26 Feb 2009

    There is a widespread tendency to overestimate the scale of recent changes in finance and economics. Newsweek’s profile of Larry Summers, Barack Obama’s chief economic adviser, is a prime example.

  • Threadneedle Alpha fund on Wealth 150

    25 Feb 2009

    Hargreaves Lansdown has added Threadneedle’s UK Equity Alpha Income fund to its Wealth 150 list of preferred funds.

  • US economy shrinks more than expected

    27 Feb 2009

    The American economy shrank at a 6.2% annual rate in the fourth quarter of 2008.

  • US newbies aim to keep things plain and simple

    23 Feb 2009

    Peter Robertson, the head of retail services at Vanguard’s newly opened British office, talks to Stefanie Eschenbacher.

  • Veritas sees inflows into global strategy

    24 Feb 2009

    Veritas Asset Management has seen a surge in inflows on its global equities strategy, which the group says reflects investors’ demand for exposure outside Britain.

  • Why journalists failed

    24 Feb 2009

    Financial journalists can make feeble excuses for their failure to anticipate the financial crisis.

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