Smart Beta - the Next Generation
MBS and Securitised Credit: Sector in Brief
Manager Intelligence and Market Trends - February 2018
Is This the Moment of Truth for Multi Asset Credit?
Emerging Market Debt: to Blend or Not to Blend?
The Hurdle Rate Debate: Are Private Debt Managers Lowering the Bar?
Sector in Brief: Agriculture and Timberland
Manager Intelligence and Market Trends - November 2017
Direct Lending: What’s Different Now?
The pile of dry powder chasing corporate direct lending has never been higher. Yet, with rising risks, a deep understanding of what’s under the bonnet is increasingly vital to successful implementation. Explore the recent spread compression, the changing composition of senior debt funds and the evolving nature of unitranche loans.
Fund of Hedge Funds Cut Fees to Regain Lost Ground...
Investors’ costs have never been more vigilantly scrutinised than they are today. New bfinance data published in Investment Management Fees: New Savings, New Challenges (May 2017) reveals falling fees in several sectors, especially where providers have been under pressure from cheaper competitors or the investment landscape has evolved.
Private Debt: Why Does Unitranche Evolution Matte...
Unitranche loans, which increasingly dominate European private debt funds and also play a key role in the US market, were only invented a decade ago. GE and Allied Capital (later Ares) teamed up to offer a single-tranche of lending where the first-out position was provided by GE and the second-out by Allied.
Taxable Municipal Bonds: Sector in Brief
The persistence of a record low-yield climate has increased the appetite of international investors for this high-quality asset class.
DNA of a Manager Search: ESG in Private Debt
Throughout 2016, innovative ESG-focused pension funds have sought ways to integrate sustainability factors in asset classes where these considerations are not necessarily mainstream. One such investor is the Environment Agency Pension Fund: their September 2016 search for a private debt manager placed ESG issues high on the priority list.
ESG Under Scrutiny: Lessons from Manager Selection...
Environmental, social and governance considerations are increasingly important across all asset classes. Yet ESG priorities and principles varying hugely among investors, creating interesting dynamics in manager search and selection.
The Changing World of Alternative Beta
When implementing an allocation in the rapidly-growing alternative risk premia (“alternative beta” sector, a great deal can fall through the cracks between theory and practice.
Global Sharia Equity: DNA of a Manager Search
A detailed examination of a recent Global Equity search for an investor for whom Sharia compliance was critical. Part of bfinance’s popular ‘DNA of a Manager Search’ series.
Absolute Return Fixed Income: Sector in Brief
The increasingly popular Absolute Return fixed income space includes a diverse group of strategies and labels: Unconstrained Bonds, Multi-Asset Credit (a.k.a MAC), Strategic Bond and Fixed Income Opportunities.
Hedge Funds: CTAs Deliver Strong Fundraising Despi...
Although CTAs bounced back in the fourth quarter of 2017, with the return of trending markets, full-year performance figures for managed futures have proven lacklustre, if considerably better than the broadly negative results of 2016.
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