When the Centre for International Finance and Regulation (CIFR) says that “investment horizon reflects an interconnected web of influences,”1 chief among them is the relationship between asset owner (principal) and asset manager (agent). It’s a relationship where we see growing friction, largely based on the misalignment between asset owner time horizons and the delegation of investment decisions to asset managers. We touched on this misalignment in my last post, but now it’s time to be more clear about one of the root causes.
Both asset managers and asset owners play a part in this misalignment — and one of the most significant areas of confusion is the lack of clarity around full market cycles. While most active managers will state that their objective is to outperform over a full market cycle, they need to be more emphatic with asset owners up front about how much time that really entails and why they need it, especially if they state they have a long-term philosophy. They must also be clear about the fact that this is what investors are paying them to do. Asset owners need their own sense of clarity around the length of a full market cycle, because, as CIFR research acknowledges, “there is no common definition of long-term horizon that is accepted or clear.” Asset owners also need to recognize the importance of giving their active managers a full market cycle, and whether or not their own time tolerance will allow them to make that commitment.
So let’s start with clarity on the definition of a full market cycle. We see that as peak to peak or trough to trough. What history has shown us is that, on average, a full market cycle is at least 7 to 10 years, depending on the extent of any drawdowns in the market, i.e., 15% or 20%. According to our recent investor sentiment survey, and as shown in the exhibit below, more than half the institutional investors we spoke with around the globe know this. But their time tolerance does not line up. As you see in the exhibit, at least 70% of the investors we surveyed would only tolerate underperformance for three years or less.
What results from this misalignment of time horizons between investors and those managing their money is principal/agent friction. And that has potentially significant costs to institutional investors, particularly those who might be pressured to hire and fire active managers at the wrong time because their boards are focused on chasing short-term performance. In fact, as we see in the third bar of the chart, many boards are placing demands on their internal investment staff to deliver alpha in less time than the investment staff gives external managers to perform.
The trouble is, we may also be underestimating how much this misalignment is driving institutional investors into pro-cyclicality, i.e., a herd mentality. In a paper on countercyclical investing, Bradley Jones at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) points out that investors often hire active managers just after a period of outperformance, only to experience a period of subsequent underperformance based on where they are in the market cycle.3 Or after doing a tremendous amount of due diligence to hire active managers, institutional investors might be forced to replace underperforming managers, only to leave alpha on the table as these fired managers often outperform in subsequent periods. As Goyal and Wahal point out in their widely read Journal of Finance article, these hire and fire decisions can damage investor returns over time.
To avoid rotating managers at the point where active skill might matter most, institutional investors need more support to impress upon their boards the importance of a full market cycle. That is particularly critical during periods of underperformance, when an active manager’s countercyclical view can help manage future risks or find good entry points to invest. Yet today, underperformance for any period has become unacceptable. That is likely because institutional investors, who have to take on so much more risk today, may naturally react by overmeasuring short-term performance to gain a sense of control and satisfy their external constituents.
Accepting periods of underperformance, however — even three years or more — could be the price of admission for allowing active skill to work effectively. We know this is a real pain point for investors. But as Mark Baumgartner points out in his paper on shortfall risk, periodic underperformance does not necessarily reflect a lack of skill. He notes that even “Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway lagged the S&P 500 in more than one-third of rolling three-year periods in the 25 years since 1987,” which, he says, is “something to keep in mind when trying to gauge manager skill over shorter time periods.”5
Getting out of this trap starts with the clarity I’ve outlined — clarity around full market cycles, around investor time tolerance and around the need to evaluate performance over longer time periods. In fact, that clarity around time is not only the start to solving misalignment, it’s the basis of good governance. When we get right to the heart of good governance for asset owners, it really is about the time tolerance built into the partnerships they have with their asset managers, as well as within their own delegation chain. That good governance is what restores and maintains alignment and builds trust that can be maintained even through the most difficult investment periods.
We know this involves a tradeoff. Asset owners, as principals, take on more agency risk when they commit to asset managers long term. So in my next post, I’ll talk about how to manage that agency risk and get comfortable with commitment.
Carol Geremia is President of MFS Institutional Advisors.
Against the backdrop of weak global growth and soft inflation, central banks have been biased towards loosening policy further or talking down the prospect of future tightening. Stimulus measures, however, have recently come into question as evidence suggests that unconventional monetary policy may have reached its limits.
For example, the Bank of Japan has recently moved away from a commitment to buy a xed quantity of government bonds and adopted a yield target instead. This may be more sustainable in the long-run, but re ects an inability to expand its government bond holdings inde nitely. Similarly, market participants have speculated that the European Central Bank may move to taper its bond purchases before long and have lost appetite for pushing interest rates to ever more negative levels.
As a consequence, many investors are beginning to look for fiscal policy to take a greater role in stimulating growth and are starting to call for a turn in the direction of interest rates and bond yields. Our view is that although we may have moved to an environment of less aggressive monetary easing, it is too soon to look for a decisive in ection point. Central banks will be cautious about changing direction given the risk of derailing the economic recovery, and scal policy is hard to expand quickly. Fiscal expansion may also be limited in some countries by debt levels, and requires a level of coordination which will challenge most governments.
Government bond yields, as a result, are adjusting to a less supportive policy environment, but are expected to remain largely range bound, with fair value only modestly above current yield levels.
A structural increase in yields will require either a rise in trend growth, a rise in trend inflation or a clearer change in the direction and mix of policy. None of these are likely to happen quickly, but we may now be at the end of a 35-year bull market for government bonds.
John Stopford is Head of Multi-Asset Income at Investec.
Research & Investment Strategy of AXA Investment Managers team publishes its prospects for next year focusing not only in 2017, but choosing a theme and medium-term approach to examine the thesis of a secular stagnation, the normalization of economic growth and inflation. They review in turn the root causes of the lack of demand, the low productivity growth based on the absence of technical progress, the drivers of the saving gluts and the end of globalisation. Ultimately their conviction is that secular stagnation is an over-rated concept.
The global lack of demand is fading and can be addressed by an appropriate mix of monetary and fiscal policies. Monetary policy will never be the same as before the Global Financial Crisis: the extension of the tool box is there to last. Fiscal policy has to play its role where possible and this is particularly the case in the euro area, where some, but not all countries, have fiscal space.
In the medium term, the saving glut is set to resorb, while productivity will regain some strength and may even be boosted by the digital economy, especially if structural reforms provide a tailwind. They dispute the idea that technology is “everywhere but in the data” and believe the countries investing most heavily in the digital economy will benefit extensively.
Taking into account their growth estimates and modelling the term premium, AXA IM estimates that US long-term rates should return to 3.4% in the coming five years. This is certainly far from current levels, implying a multi-year normalisation that should radically affect asset allocations.
Given that previous episodes of rising rates have scarcely been smooth operations, they also take a deep dive into financial market stability analysis. The key ingredients of another financial crisis are mostly absent at the current juncture but certain elements may be a cause for concern, such as stretched fixed income valuations and constrained market liquidity.
Over the last five years, La Française has experienced strong growth through its expansion and through the internationalisation of its expertise, thanks to its strategic partnerships that have allowed the group to strengthen its skills.
So as to create synergies between the various group affiliates and divisions, La Française has reorganized its Securities Fund Management Division.
Accordingly, under the leadership of Pascale Auclair, Global Head of Investments, Jean-Luc Hivert and Laurent Jacquier Laforge are heading the two divisions of expertise: “Fixed Income and Cross Asset” and “Equity”, respectively.
Jean-Luc Hivert, with nineteen years of asset management experience, becomes CIO Fixed Income & Cross Asset. He is responsible for €30 billion in assets under management and heads a team of twenty-six experts. Accordingly, he is entrusted with the Group’s Cross Asset management, discretionary portfolio management and targeted management, for which Odile Camblain-Le Mollé holds operational responsibility. Jean-Luc joined La Française des Placements in 2001. As Co-Head of Bond Management, Jean-Luc innovated and contributed to the launch of the fixed maturity fund concept, one of the key differentiation factors of La Française. He holds a specialised post-graduate diploma (DESS) in Finance from Université Paris VI (1996), a MIAGE (Computer science applied to business management) degree (1995) and a MASS (Applied mathematics and social sciences) degree from Université Paris XII (1993).
Laurent Jacquier Laforge, with more than thirty years of experience, becomes CIO Equities Global. He is responsible for the entire SRI Equity range offered by La Française, small caps management and the monitoring of partnerships, such IPCM, an extra-financial research firm, Alger and JK Capital Management. For several years, La Française has been building strategic partnerships with specialised foreign management companies. As group CIO Equities Global and in the interests of investors, Laurent Jacquier Laforge will identify potential collaborations on products and research synergies. Laurent joined La Française in 2014. Since then, he has transformed the range of funds offered by La Française Inflection Point by incorporating the philosophy of Strategically Aware Investing (SAI) which includes an additional responsible dimension and was developed by IPCM, the London research firm with which the group has established a strategic partnership. Laurent Jacquier Laforge holds a DESS-DEA postgraduate degree in Economics from Université Paris X in Nanterre. Laurent is a member of the SFAF (French Financial Analysts association).
Markets closed 2016 on the right foot with the way cleared from the Italian wildcard. The post-Trump election rally extended to December, benefiting DM markets globally while EM markets lagged. The upbeat tone also echoed the global agreement to scale back oil production. The surge of Brent to $56 supported the US High Yield segment.
Meanwhile, and according to Lyxor AM´s monthly barometer, the fixed income space continued to witness the great divergence in monetary policies. The Fed hiked rates by 25 bps mid-month while the ECB delivered a dovish tapering: it extended the program until end-2017 but reduced monthly purchases. Yields spread between Treasuries and German Bunds hit record highs. That led to further strengthening of the USD vs. major currencies while gold sold-off.
“In 2017, we expect less monetary accommodation, more fiscal boost and more policy ruptures to support rising rates and inflation. That would result in greater asset prices dispersion and more fundamental pricing, especially in the US where the process is more advanced. These factors would benefit Macro managers. However, the strategy is likely to remain constrained by elevated political uncertainty, prompting funds to be either overly hedged or endure volatility in their returns. We maintain a slight overweight on the strategy but we expect rising fund performance differentiation.” said Jean-Baptiste Berthon, Senior Cross-Asset strategist at Lyxor Asset Management
The risk-on environment supported hedge funds, with the Lyxor Hedge Fund Index up 1%. Global Macro delivered strong returns thanks to their long on equity markets and USD crosses. On the flip side, L/S Equity funds lagged due to the underperformance of Neutral funds.
Global Macro funds continued to gain traction and confirmed their year-end recovery. Managers benefited from the strong rally in European equities past the Italian referendum, while the depreciation of the EUR and GBP against USD added to gains. Overall, Macro funds’ positions became more homogeneous in December. Most of them bet on the reflation trade in Europe (long equities, short bonds and short EUR), while playing out rising inflation in the US and a stronger dollar (long bonds and USD, but short equities). In that regard, the divergence that took place in the fixed income space proved costly for portfolios this month. Finally, funds caught up the swift jump in energy but the sell-off in gold was detrimental.
In December, CTAs regained a meaningful chunk of the lost ground. The negative correlation between equities and bonds was supportive for models as they slashed their long fixed income allocations and re- weighted equities. Long USD vs. EUR and GBP was also a strong driver of returns. The commodity bucket remained overall mixed, but their long stance on energy paid off.
Special Situations outperformed within Event Driven, supported by the year-end rally. Sector wise, they benefited from core investments in Basic Materials, Consumer Non-Cyclicals, Financials and Technologies. Merger Arbitrage funds benefited from spread compression across a number of deals. The completion of the LinkedIn/Microsoft deal on Dec 8th paid off. In aggregate, managers closed the year cautiously exposed, with sizeable exposure to Consumer Non–Cyclicals and Technology. Heading into 2017, higher US corporate activity would foster Event Driven. Prospects of deregulation in some industries, corporate tax cut and cash repatriation would offer fresh opportunities for the strategy.
L/S Credit Arbitrage enjoyed healthy returns and closed 2016 up 5.4% with a very low volatility. Credit markets were supportive, in particular in the High Yield segment. Additionally, fixed income funds delivered healthy returns as well. Relative value investors navigated well the rising bond yield environment.
L/S Equity strategy delivered poor returns in December, but this hides disparate returns across regions and styles. On one hand, the longest biased funds continued to extend gains this month, and closed the year up 4.5%. Long books were the main source of alpha, especially within the financial sector. Some variable biased with a value-tilt recorded strong results. On the other hand, Asian and European Market Neutral funds were hardest hit by sector rotation. Overall, L/S Equity funds dramatically increased their positions towards Cyclicals vs. Defensives. They moderately increased their net exposure to equities throughout the month.
Very disappointing results of active European equity fund managers in 2016 may have caused an acceleration of the shift into passive solutions, says www.fundinfo.com.
Active European equity managers got wrong-footed on sector allocation in 2016, adds the website. As ifund revealed this week, only 8% of European equity managers outperformed the MSCI Europe NR net of retail fees and just 24% did so gross of fees.
This may have caused an acceleration of the shift into passive solutions: while one year ago active European equity funds accounted for about 75% of all document views this number has most recently collapsed to 54%. This shift was most pronounced within public channels for German investors but was also remarkable for Swiss, Italian and UK investorss.
% share in document downloads over 1 year for equites Europe, Europe ex UK, and Eurozone within European and Asian sales channels.
PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, has launched a dedicated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment platform globally, offering a range of fixed income solutions to investors seeking attractive returns while making a positive social impact. As part of this effort, the PIMCO GIS Global Bond ESG Fund has been launched in EMEA.
PIMCO applies a robust framework across its ESG solutions, delivering maximum impact for
investors. This framework includes three key elements: exclusion, evaluation and
engagement. Companies with business practices that are misaligned with sustainability principles are excluded from PIMCO’s ESG portfolios. Companies are also evaluated on their ESG credentials and those with best-in-class ESG practices are favored in these solutions. Critically, the team engages collaboratively with companies, encouraging them to improve their ESG practices and influence long term change.
The newly launched PIMCO GIS Global Bond ESG Fund invests in a range of sovereign and investment grade corporate bonds from around the world. The fund aims to maximize total return whilst favoring issuers with best-in-class ESG practices and those that are working to improve them. The fund is managed by a team led by Andrew Balls, Managing Director and CIO of Global Fixed Income and Alex Struc, Portfolio Manager co-heading the ESG initiative at PIMCO.
In addition, PIMCO has enhanced two of its socially responsible funds in the U.S. to incorporate a wider range of ESG considerations into the investment process. These funds are managed by a team led by Scott Mather, Managing Director and CIO for US Core Strategies and Alex Struc.
Andrew Balls said: “For many investors, screening out undesirable investment categories isn’t enough anymore; they want to use their investments to promote change in the world. Our ESG platform provides the tools to do that without compromising on returns.”
Alex Struc said: “Historically, this type of strategy has been pursued by equity investors but we firmly believe that engagement as a debtholder is equally important. Across the vast fixed income universe, small change can have an enormous positive impact.”
BNY Mellon Investment Management (BNY Mellon IM), the world’s largest multi-boutique asset manager with 1.7 trillion dollars in assets under management, announced that Sasha Evers, Managing Director for Iberia, expands his role to lead the Latin America business.
Antonio Salvador Nasur will continue in his regional role based in Santiago, Chile, reporting directly to Sasha Evers, based in Madrid, Spain.
Under Evers’ leadership BNY Mellon IM opened its Madrid office in 2000 to successfully grow BNY Mellon IM’s presence across Iberia (Spain, Portugal and Andorra), where current assets under management are USD 3,537 bn (EUR: 3.730 m).
Sasha Evers, Managing Director of BNY Mellon IM for Iberia, said: “The Latin American region offers a strong long-term growth story for our business. I am looking forward to working closely with Antonio to further build upon our business in the region.”
Matt Oomen, Head of International Distribution at BNY Mellon Investment Management, commented: “While setting in stone our longer term distribution strategy to grow assets in Latin America, we saw many synergies between Iberia and Latin America. Sasha’s experience and leadership puts him in the best position to further grow our presence in the region, following his success leading BNY Mellon IM Iberia.”
Looking into 2017, our primary investment thesis is based on the belief that investors are underestimating the prospect of stronger growth and inflation in the US economy relative to the rest of the world over the next year.
Where’s the growth?
Global growth has been weaker than many policymakers and market participants expected following the 2008 global financial crisis. The deleveraging cycle in the developed world and the Chinese economy’s transition to a lower-growth path have both acted as major headwinds to the global economy. In response, central banks have undertaken extraordinary policy measures to provide support, which, in turn, have strongly in uenced the direction of asset prices.
Pessimism is in the price
We believe the global economy’s structural issues will remain with us for some years to come, resulting in a continuation of the low-growth environment. However, this has largely been accepted by investors. Looking into 2017, our primary investment thesis is based on the belief that investors are underestimating the prospect of stronger growth and in ation in the US economy relative to the rest of the world over the next year.
Following an easing of financial conditions over the past year, with government bond yields and mortgage rates having declined significantly, we see positive trends emerging in US credit growth and the housing market in particular. In our view, this implies higher longer-dated US bond yields and a stronger US dollar looking forward. As a result, we believe that many of the areas that have struggled through 2016 appear to offer some of the most attractive opportunities.
Sectors are diverging
The large decline in longer-dated government bond yields this year resulted in a meaningful division within equity markets. This has been particularly prevalent in the US market where, although the S&P 500 has made little overall progress, there has been a high level of dispersion in performance between those sectors that gained from lower bond yields and those that lost.
US banking bounce?
An example would be the performance of US banks relative to utility companies, with the former underperforming significantly. While a stronger US dollar and higher bond yields may act as a headwind to US equities more broadly, we believe there is scope for a rotation within the equity market and consequently we have been sellers of US utility companies and buyers of US banks.
Greenback revival?
We have also been sellers of government bonds and have been reinitiating long US dollar positions against the currencies of countries where we expect monetary policy to remain loose or even be eased further, such as the Korean won, Taiwanese dollar, New Zealand dollar and Japanese yen. With the exception of the latter, these currency positions are designed to act as defensive positions at a time when government bonds may struggle to perform.
Positioning for 2017: Flexibility is the key
Although we believe there are a number of compelling opportunities in 2017, we acknowledge that valuations across the majority of asset classes are not as attractive as they have been in recent years, as we remain in an environment of structurally low growth with economies more susceptible to shocks. As a result, the overall risk level of our strategies will likely remain lower than would otherwise be true, were risk premia to be higher, and we will continue to use our flexibility to identify opportunities as they appear and to seek to protect capital as risks emerge.
Iain Cunningham is a Portfolio Manager in the multi-asset team at Investec Asset Management.
The Lombard Odier Group announces the appointment of Annika Falkengren and Denis Pittet as new Managing Partners.
“These two nominations provide a solid base for the further build-up of the Lombard Odier Group” said Patrick Odier, Senior Managing Partner of the Lombard Odier Group. “We are particularly pleased to welcome two highly complementary personalities with Annika Falkengren, who brings a recognised expertise in the running of a respected and successful European financial institution, and Denis Pittet, who has contributed significantly to the strategic development of the bank over the past 20 years. These two appointments represent a strong endorsement of our strategy, differentiated business model and long term vision.”
Annika Falkengren, currently President and CEO of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), will join the Lombard Odier Group in July 2017 as a Managing Partner based in Geneva. Annika Falkengren joined SEB in 1987 and made a long and distinguished career which culminated in her nomination as President and CEO of SEB in 2005. Recognised as one of Europe’s most respected bankers, she is also Chairman of the Swedish Bankers Association.
“I am very honoured to join a Group with strong family values and with a truly international mindset and outlook”, said Annika Falkengren. “I firmly believe in the partnership model which has been underpinning Lombard Odier’s evolution over the 221 years of its history.”
Denis Pittet will become a Managing Partner in January 2017. Denis Pittet joined the Group in 1993 as a trained lawyer. He was Group Legal Counsel, before joining the Private Clients Unit in 2015 where he took over the responsibility for the independent asset managers’ department and led the expansion of wealth planning services in the areas of family governance and philanthropy. He became a Group Limited Partner in 2007. He is also Chairman of the Fondation Philanthropia, an umbrella foundation supporting clients’ long-term philanthropic projects.
“My objective will be to maintain a first class client experience at Lombard Odier”, added Denis Pittet. “We are solely dedicated to clients in a model which puts independence at the heart of everything we do.”
After 20 years of commitment to the Group, Managing Partner Anne-Marie de Weck retired on 31 December 2016. She joined Lombard Odier in 1997 to take over responsibility for the Firm’s legal department, and subsequently its Private Clients activity. A Managing Partner since 2002, Anne-Marie de Weck has made decisive contributions to the strategic development of the firm’s private client business.
“We would like to express our sincere thanks to Anne-Marie de Weck for her relentless commitment to serving our clients. We are also very grateful that she will maintain a close relationship with the Group as a member of the Board of Directors of our Swiss-based bank. In this role, she will continue to be involved in defining the strategic orientation and overseeing the operational activities of the business”, said Patrick Odier.
In July 2017, the Management Partnership of the Lombard Odier Group will be composed of Patrick Odier (Senior Partner), Christophe Hentsch, Hubert Keller, Frédéric Rochat, Hugo Bänziger, Denis Pittet and Annika Falkengren.
