Exclusive: City fund managers on pandemic volatility, inflation and value vs growth March 24, 2021 It has been a surreal year for fund managers in the City, with unprecedented volatility descending on practically every investment vehicle, asset manager or investor operating out of the Square Mile. The unpredictability of the ongoing pandemic is one of the reasons why the age-old investment-driven debate about ‘cheap’ value stocks versus ‘expensive’ growth equities [...]
Asset managers keep pension trustees in the dark on holding companies to account March 15, 2021 The trustees of the UK’s pension pots are being kept in the dark by asset managers on how they oversee their investments, according to new research. Most asset managers were unable to provide details of how they exercised their voting rights or engaged with the companies they invest in, according to a survey by pension [...]
ESG demand pushes Gresham House assets higher March 11, 2021 Gresham House has reported stellar growth over the past year as interest in ESG pushed its assets under management higher. The asset manager reported a 42 per cent rise in AUM to £4bn over the year with organic growth of £1bn across housing, forestry and sustainable infrastructure. It was largely driven by £437m of positive [...]
Quilter reports dip in profits and warns Lighthouse redress bill could hit £36m March 10, 2021 Shares in Quilter are up more than seven per cent this morning even after the wealth manager reported a fall in 2020 profit. Profit before tax for the year ended 31 December 2020 came in at £168m, down from £182m the year before. Quilter Investors saw net inflows drop 40 per cent from £500m to [...]
Man Group raises dividend as funds under management hit $123.6b March 2, 2021 Hedge fund manager Man Group has this morning raised its dividend by 8 per cent as funds under management marked a record high for the firm. Funds hit $123.6b under management from $117.7b the year before, as assets climbed by 8 per cent, reaching $77.2b. The firm has also raised its total dividend to 10.6c [...]
St James’s Place bullish on prospects as profit jumps February 25, 2021 St James’s Place is targeting more than £200bn in funds under management by the end of 2025 after a surge in profit amid the market recovery. Funds under management for the year ended 31 December stood at a record £129.3bn compared with £117bn the previous year. Wealth managers have benefited from the market recovery after [...]
Is technology a new asset class? February 23, 2021 | City Talk With Covid-19 accelerating digitalisation, the question facing many companies is no longer whether technology is important, but just how important? What percentage of their time should a bank or retailer’s top executives spend thinking about technology? How much investment should a company make in tech? What weighting should institutional and retail investors give the sector? [...]
Maybe analyst recommendations DO add value February 16, 2021 | City Talk This is something all investors know for a fact: following analyst buy or sell recommendations isn’t going to lead to outperformance in the long run. Or is it? A new study may cast some doubt on the conventional wisdom. In “Analyst Recommendations and Anomalies Across the Globe,” Vitor Azevedo and Sebastian Müller, CFA, examine 3.8 million analyst forecasts in [...]
Amundi CEO steps down on a high as fund manager reports record profit February 10, 2021 Yves Perrier is stepping down after more than a decade running Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager. He will be succeeded by his deputy Valérie Baudson, the group said on Friday. Perrier, who has led the French firm since its creation in 2010, announced his departure as the group reported a record fourth-quarter profit. He will [...]
The truthiness of ESG criticism February 2, 2021 | City Talk There are two often-repeated critiques of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing that I really can’t stand. They have the quality of truthiness about them and are what academics sometimes call “as if” arguments. For my younger readers, the term truthiness is defined by Wikipedia as follows: “Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement [...]