Q: Why do we still use cap-weighted indices at all?A: Because that’s the way we measure performance. As old as the now-redundant argument as to whether passive investments are better than active over time is the argument as to whether capitalization-weighted indices, which remain the norm, represent the best yardstick for the average pension fund’s…
State Street, which has a long on-the-ground history in China, including a large administration and software base in Hangzhou, has decided on a traditional partnership structure for its first Chinese domestic asset management business. The firm announced last week that it would take a 49 per cent interest, through State Street Global Advisors, in a…
Notwithstanding a 60 per cent fall from its peak, the Chinese stock market still looks unattractive to a renowned US-based value manager who has been billed as “the new Benjamin Graham”. Vitaliy Katsenelson, the Russian-born CIO of Investment Management Associates Inc, believes the quality of information about Chinese stocks, the high proportion which are linked…
IO&C is hopeful of raising $US40,000 for the Shanghai-based CereCare charity for disabled children in China with a gala dinner at next April’s conference at the Hyatt on the Bund. A proportion of the funds will go to the supply of new wheel chairs and the remainder to contribute to the provision of a special…
The influential Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, representing the country’s largest fiduciary investment funds, has recommended several regulatory reforms and changed market practices for custodians and others involved in proxy voting at meetings for listed companies. This follows a research project by ACSI which studied proxy votes by 23 big investors during 2011, involving 1,895…
While regulators often speak of moving away from prescriptive rules-based regulation towards to a more holistic principles-based system, their actions usually seem the opposite. Take, for example, last week’s announcement increasing financial requirements for custodians operating in Australia. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission published on November 14 a consultation paper on proposed changes for…
The differing concerns, fears and aspirations of institutional investors around the world have been starkly outlined in a landmark study by the State Street Centre for Applied Research. Chinese are more worried about transparency than performance. Australians, who are most concerned about performance, are more worried about their regulators but also distrust their service providers….
eVestment Alliance (eA) has thrown down the gauntlet to Mercer in the institutional performance information and fund ranking markets with the acquisition of two well-known hedge fund information businesses. eA has acquired PerTrac, one of the largest specialist hedge fund information firms, and Fundspire, a cloud-technology hedge fund analytics and performance data and tools provider….
Since the global financial crisis there has been a drying up of investing in not only venture capital but in the sort of venture capital which creates most jobs. But, if you look at the history of job-creating “big ideas”, which are venture backed, that is exactly what investors should be looking at right now….
Former Minister for Superannuation and Senate Select Committee member and chair, Nick Sherry, has picked up two non-executive roles in the industry, which already appear to be paying dividends, writes Patrick Liddy*: The platform provider FNZ made a shrewd investment when it appointed the ex Federal Minister, Nick Sherry, as its chairman. Citi was also…
