Institutional investors continued to suppress home country biases and globalise equity portfolios during 2009, a year in which risk appetite returned as equity markets rallied and short-dated credit strategies thrived, according to manager search data from Mercer Investment Consulting.
Distressed opportunities spurs internal expansion at Maryland
The $35 billion Maryland State Retirement Agency will increase its internal investment team by 25 per cent as it looks to expand its coverage of market activities and take advantage of opportunities in the distressed market.
Funds must rethink global equities, says consultant
Mercer Investment Consulting has undertaken a review of global equities and is about to roll out to clients a paper which questions traditional cap-weighted benchmarks.
Mercer’s new approach to asset allocation for multi-manager funds
Mercer has revamped the asset allocation of its largest group of funds and in the process refined the way it classifies types of investments into ‘growth’ and ‘defensive’. The multi-manager has also signaled an evolution towards a ‘risk premia-based’ approach to asset allocation in the future. Greg Bright reports.
Performance persistence: reverting back to normal
The latest performance persistence study by RogersCasey’s managing director, head of global portfolio solutions, Soonyong Park, which incorporates data from the volatile 2008 period, confirms the lack of persistence of returns in the equity asset management universes, and further, that it is more pronounced when long-term results are evaluated.
Short termism presents opportunities for long-term investors
There is more opportunity to capture value-added returns by focusing on the long-horizon end of the investment spectrum, than join the over-crowded short-horizon end where most investment management is conducted, according to president and chief executive of the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), David Denison.
