While shareholder activism is a hot topic among institutional investors, where hedge funds are concerned, it doesn’t seem to have much impact on investee company profitability, according to a paper by J.B. Heaton, an independent financial economics researcher. Hedge fund activism is a great story, one that investors can wrap their heads around, says Heaton. […]
As alternative investments become ubiquitous among institutional portfolios, harnessing the right strategies will make all the difference in an environment where returns are proving harder to find, said John Gray, partner at Adams Street Partners. “In a world where everybody needs return . . . people are ramping up their allocations to private equity,” he […]
Institutional plan sponsors lost a median of 3.8 per cent in 2018, as losses in the fourth quarter of the year dragged down returns, according to new data by Northern Trust Corp. The Northern Trust Universe, which tracks the performance of about 300 large U.S. institutional investment plans with a combined asset value of about $925.7 billion, found […]
Northern Trust Corp. is introducing an alternative fund services business for North America, aimed at addressing the needs of the evolving alternative asset management industry. Peter Sanchez, who has led the company’s hedge fund services since 2011, will lead the new business, which is part of Northern Trust’s corporate and institutional services. “Bringing private equity and hedge fund services […]
Global institutional investors are more trusting of the financial services sector than their retail counterparts, according to a new survey by the CFA Institute. The survey, which polled more than 800 institutional investors and about 3,000 retail investors, also found institutions are more trusting of every industry in which they might invest. The majority (85 per cent) of […]
Eighty per cent of global institutional investors were invested in alternative assets in 2017 and more than half (52 per cent) were invested in three or more alternative asset classes, according to new research by Preqin Ltd. The asset classes with the highest engagement in 2017 were real estate (59 per cent) and private equity (58 per cent), […]
Nearly half (45 per cent) of global institutional investors reported that their hedge fund portfolios had reached or exceeded expectations as of June 2017, compared to just 21 per cent that said the same at the mid-year mark in 2016, according to new research by Preqin Ltd. As such, the majority of investors now hold […]
It can be difficult to find real alpha opportunities, which are based on consistently harvestable mispricings rather than a manager’s hard-to-replicate intuition. Certainly, the pages of the financial press are littered with tales of hedge fund managers whose hot hands have now gone cold. But there does seem to be some method — and returns […]
After seeing some progress in recent months, defined benefit pension plans in Ontario saw a drop in solvency levels during the second quarter. According to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario, the median solvency ratio was 89 per cent as of June 30. That was down from 93 per cent on March 31, 2017. Only […]
Diversified pooled pension fund managers posted a median return of 0.7 per cent before management fees for the second quarter of 2017 and a median year-to-date return of 3.6 per cent, according to a new report by Morneau Shepell Ltd. The quarterly report, which covers about 324 pooled funds that have a market value of […]