Our obsession with quarterly corporate earnings is a market failure, according to Colin Melvin, CEO of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, and can only be corrected by action from institutional asset owners.

For venture capital investors, the days of receiving 100-plus per cent internal rates of returns (IRRs) from a broad sweep of managers are gone. But this doesn’t mean investors should give up searching for the few remaining outperformers.

Access to investment smarts and better fee alignment are just some of the benefits institutional investors can gain through their mandates with funds managers, says Craig Baker, global head of manager research with Towers Watson.

Two major pension funds from the Netherlands and Canada – ABP and OMERS – have seeded an innovation and technology program to invest in their domestic knowledge economies. Called inkef capital, it has already begun searching for the success stories of the future.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Australia’s Future Fund have banded together to buy out the majority of investors in a direct property fund.

Is passion a characteristics of a good funds manager, and if so how does it manifest itself? These issues are explored with a number of Australia’s most respected investment managers.

Outspoken hedge fund manager, Cliff Asness, says breaking down the sources and challenges to manager performance will determine how investors should pay for alpha.

The $31 billion Australian government-backed asset manager, VFMC, has reaped big rewards from its belief in the hedge fund managers it backed five or more years ago. Click here to read more

The $31 billion Australian government-backed asset manager, VFMC, has reaped big rewards from its belief in the hedge fund managers it backed five or more years ago, reports Simon Mumme.

Investing in ‘distressed shipping’ is a variation of the current capital scarcity theme, Mercer says. (click on the photo for more…)

Bonds have been the saviour for institutional investors in the global recovery, but a new bout of risk-aversion induced by concerns about sovereign risk threatens the stability of the traditionally defensive assets.

Signs that the global shipping industry has hit the bottom of its current cycle provides a good case for opportunistic investing in cargo vessels, Mercer says.