Investors are watching conflict in the Middle East closely as inflationary pressures begin to build beneath the surface. One of the challenges for many investors is reduced exposure to the hedging benefits of fossil fuels in listed, and private markets.
There are an estimated 1,600 private equity firms around the world in capital-raising mode at the moment, offering fiduciary investors a smorgasbord of alternatives, split on regions, style, size, stage and sector categorisations. Some recent good news for investors is that, for private equity at least, there is now evidence of performance persistence.
As tensions in Libya increase, a leading authority on sovereign wealth funds has urged investee entities of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) to freeze its holdings, until such time as they are needed to rebuild an independent Libya.
This analysis suggests that without a well-developed domestic financial market, the value of the Chinese currency (renminbi) may significantly depreciate, instead of appreciate, once the Chinese government abandons the linked exchange rate and the massive amount of precautionary savings of Chinese households are unleashed toward international financial markets to search for better returns.
The Alaska Permanent Fund Board of Trustees was educated on the changing risk profiles of emerging-market debt at its meeting in February, with chair, Bill Moran, suggesting the asset class could have a greater role in the fund’s portfolio in the future.
Pension funds need to look at building a “new beta system”, according to Dr Henry Zhao (pictured), moving away from traditional global indexes in general and cap-weighted indexes in particular.
MSCI’s proposed global socially responsible indexes are being critiqued by not only MSCI clients but by the wider community as MSCI widens its consultation process for the proposal.
Top1000funds.com is the market leading news and analysis site for the world’s largest institutional investors. It focuses on leading the global investment industry to continuous improvement through case studies of best practice in governance and decision making, portfolio construction and efficient portfolio management, fees and costs, and sustainable investing.
The publication pushes the industry to question whether status quo processes and behaviours to tackle risks and opportunities will be sufficient in the future, and actively campaigns for diversity, sustainability, transparency, innovation and better alignment of fees in the investment industry.
Top1000funds.com is read by investment professionals in more than 40 countries.
Risk