The record number of mergers and acquisition deals announced in 2015 hasn’t led to a sustained interest in so-called merger arbitrage funds. Ucits-regulated M&A funds fell out of grace in the final months of the year, as they significantly underperformed their offshore peers.
The SLI GARS fund was the best-selling mutual fund in Europe in November, taking in €1bn in net new money. However, there are multi-strategy funds that perform much better.
Debt-to-GDP ratios in emerging market countries have been rising at alarming rates this year, according to the latest data from the Institute of International Finance (IIF). China, Saudi-Arabia and Turkey have seen the most rapid debt build-up.
In this video interview, Andrew Summers, head of fund selection at Investec Wealth & Investment, talks about his fondness of funds with a strong manager at the helm.
Government bonds are headed for negative returns in 2016, international asset managers believe. Their outlook for the next 12 months is at its most negative since April 2013.
People tend to dedicate most of their time to thinking through short-term solutions. While central banks saw QE as the easiest way to provide an imminent boost to their ailing economies, the current migration crisis is just as much a product of short-termist thinking.
Emerging market equities have returned to favour with European investors, for as long as it lasts. After 10 straight months of net outflows, money is finally flowing into the asset class again, according to the latest Morningstar fund flows data.
Low volatility stocks lose their defensive characteristics when rates go up and markets are under stress, fund managers told the audience at Expert Investor Norway last week. Is this a risk that could seriously unsettle markets, after the huge inflows into low volatility strategies in the past years?
If you had invested all your cash in dollars as a euro-based investor this year, you would have earned a better return than if you had emulated the MSCI World. Moreover, equity returns seem to have become completely tied to exchange rate movements.
Fund manager sentiment towards US equities had been negative for much of this year, with most asset management companies expecting a negative return over the next 12 months.
A poll at Expert Investor Europe’s Alternative Ucits Congress in Versailles earlier this month showed that little over half of delegates negotiate the fees they pay for their alternative investment funds. Dan Kemp of Morningstar finds this figure ‘surprisingly low’, and suggests that fund selectors should attach more importance to costs.
The pace of inflows into index-trackers shows no sign of abating. With still three months to go this year, ETFs listed in Europe have already surpassed the previous inflows record set in 2014.
