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(Pictured: Feifei Li) The rise in popularity of smart-beta since the global financial crisis has prompted a resurgence in debate about the various factors which quant managers use in devising their strategies. More importantly, whether the characters these factors exhibit are likely to persist. The low-volatility premium is particularly topical and is winning hearts and minds,…

(Pictured: Martin Goss) World rankings of institutional funds probably don’t mean much to the underlying investors and fund members but the data collection often exposes some interesting trends around the global pensions industry. Towers Watson’s annual Top 300 Funds report was released last week. In the latest Top 300, compiled by Towers Watson and ‘Pensions &…

The evolution of hedge funds of funds businesses around the world has presented institutional and other investors with a greater array of partners with whom they can formulate strategies to better target outcomes. Greg Bright spoke with David Walter, the regional head of research for the US$10.5 billion fund of funds and advisory company PAAMCO,…

(Pictured: Tim Martin) Tyndall Asset Management has folded its alternatives business in with the management of core asset classes and made Tim Martin, who headed the unit, redundant. The firm, owned by Nikko Asset Management, has also let go its head of sales and marketing, Matt Russell. The Tyndall alternatives business, which focused on private debt,…

(Pictured: Connie Mckeage) OneVue has capitalized on its recent IPO already and will expand its outsource offering to include a responsible entity service following the purchase of Select Asset Management. Select, which was established in 2002 as a fund-of-funds manager covering alternative as well as mainstream asset classes, has also developed the RE business – Select…

(Pictured: Damien Hatfield) Damien Hatfield, one of the most influential hedge fund managers in Australia, and his partner David Louie, have joined multi-affiliate manager Ascalon Capital in a sales and marketing capacity. Hatfield, sometimes referred to as the godfather of the Australian hedge fund industry, and Louie, will retain their consulting business, Triple A Partners, in…

(Pictured: David Bone) Citi has introduced a service for super funds and managers to help them capitalize on the launch of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect program, which will enable foreign investors to buy China ‘A’ shares without a QFII quota and for Chinese investors to more easily access foreign markets. The Stock Connect program, which…

Not only are active managers more likely to outperform their benchmarks in emerging markets, the outperformance is more likely to persist than for managers in the major asset classes, according to a study by Segal Rogerscasey. The study, published by the consulting firm’s Australian research partner Frontier Advisors, is part of a series which looks…

(Pictured: Geoff Lloyd) Perpetual has hit the growth phase of its management plan, confirming the establishment of a global equities team in the process of delivering, last week, its best profit performance for several years. The global equities team, as reported previously (ISN May 18, 2014), follows an incubation period of just over three years whereby…

(Pictured: Patrick Bolton) Do stock prices represent a good measure of a company’s fundamental value? Not according to professor Patrick Bolton of Columbia University. A good illustration of this is the market’s complete failure to price risks associated with climate change, he says. Professor Bolton is to address the annual Paul Woolley Centre conference at the…