Feature
Reputation and independence key to auditor selection
How important should the choice of an auditor to the fund be to an investor? What criteria should a fund use to choose an auditor?
Determining fair value comes under attack
What are the issues around valuations?
Profession struggles with varying models
What are the challenges from the accounting standards’ (IFRS versus US GAAP) different valuation models – mark to market versus mark to comparators versus mark to model and different types of assets and jurisdictions?
Two accounting standard setters dominate
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is an independent standard-setting board, appointed and overseen by a geographically and professionally diverse group of trustees of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation…
Lehman fallout still causing concern
How did firms deal with assets held at Lehman?
Tax concerns remain top of the agenda
What are some of the key concerns and issues about the tax structure of a fund? What advice do you give on the tax structure of a fund or fund of hedge funds?
Credit fund looks set for another good year
Founded in 2000 to take advantage of the opportunities in the European markets with the introduction of the euro, Liontrust Credit Fund has seen continued growth. Simon Thorp, head of fixed income at the company, remembers the fund managers saw great…
Emerging opportunities
US-based investment managers Prince Street Capital’s flagship long/short fund has never suffered annual negative returns, even in 2008.
Enterprising investment
TTP Ventures’ chief executive David Gee believes clean technology is set to be the highest growth economy in the UK over the next 10–20 years.
Structured for success
In just six years, structured product specialist TFS has launched 750 bespoke products for clients.
Building on property
Faircroft Properties chief executive James Burchell believes the current economic climate is the right time to invest in commercial property.
Making money from a macro-economic shift
The world is in the midst of “one of the great macro-economic shifts of the last 100 years”, according to DTAP Capital Advisors partner Hugh Warrender.
Systematic investment
Formed through a spin-off from JWM Capital Partners, Episteme Capital’s inaugural fund went live in July this year.
Chinese opportunities
Of all the world’s emerging markets, none has boomed so quickly as China. While the developed world struggles with the financial crisis, China is forecasting continued strong growth.
Warming up to Cuban investment
Alex Schmid thinks there is a rare, niche opportunity for investors in one of the few remaining territories standing outside the world’s financial markets.
Farmland offers opportunities
Population growth and climate change are driving a change in the way the world uses land. As a consequence there is a shortage of good-quality farm and forest land.
Watch for the bond bubble
The credit markets have avoided becoming the next bubble waiting to burst. Nevertheless, investors should be cautious of government bonds.
Investment grade bonds offer
Increased issuance of US investment grade bonds present increased opportunities, says Scott Service, senior global strategist at Loomis, Sayles & Co. There has already been a huge rally and he is confident “there is more rally to come”.
Future of diversification
Family offices are increasingly looking at tangible assets as a way to diversify their portfolios away from purely financial risk.
Emerging markets, emerging assets
Investors must be wary of a still-volatile economy and pick investments accordingly. However, emerging markets are a good bet and will continue to be so, concludes Cayzer Trust Company director Dominic Gibbs.
Risk needs new clothes
It is not often the financial markets are compared to fairytales but that is how economist Roger Nightingale sees the way risk has been sold over the past few decades.
Commercial property set to rise
The economic forecast for the commercial property market is clearing, says Standard Life Investments’ investment director Andrew Jackson.
Simple strategies are the best
Investors were shocked in 2008 when they discovered diversifying a portfolio could not get rid of risk. Economists were less unsettled. They tend to look at a whole range of views, examining data and information domestically and globally in order to form…