IPE Webcast Channel

Emerging markets have shown their mettle in the years following the GFC. Strong growth and increasing share of global GDP, healthy balance sheets, improving transparency and liquidity have improved Emerging Markets' appeal among institutional investors.

• With global developed markets making a strong start to 2013, does the relative appeal of EMs still hold true? What’s in store over the year ahead?

• Are institutional investors still under-allocated to Emerging Markets?

• What is driving EM returns and how can investors evaluate different components?

• What approaches are delivering results?

• We review an equal weighted country strategy that has produced consistent results and enhanced EM diversification.


Gaurav Mallik
Gaurav is a Senior Member of the Global Active Quantitative Equity Team at SSgA. He is responsible for portfolio management, research and positioning across multiple strategies within the group.
Prior to this role, he was a part of the quantitative credit research team at State Street Global Markets. He joined State Street Global Markets from SKG, Inc., a company he founded with State Street in 2001 focused on trading illiquid bonds. Gaurav has 7 years' experience in research and quantitative modelling on the sell-side.

Gaurav holds an MBA in Finance from Cornell University, a Master in Electrical Engineering, with a focus on Neural Networks, from Boston University and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Robert Gordon's University in Aberdeen. He has written several papers on liquidity in credit markets and has presented research at academic and practitioner conferences.

Join Northern Trust as we present the key findings from our latest research paper “The New Active Decision in Beta Management?”

This report takes the baton from our 2012 research paper ‘Customised Beta – Changing Perspectives on Passive Investing‘ by exploring the world of alternative indices and how demand for these capabilities is altering the alpha/beta landscape.

During the webinar we will cover:
1.Topical insight from investors, consultants and index providers
2.Challenges faced by investors using alternative indices
3.Analysis of the role alternative indices has within portfolios – including performance modeling and forecasts
4.What this all means for you, the investor

Our primary objectives were to validate the trend we saw from our client base, and identify the challenges faced by investors.

The Northern Trust team wish to use these findings to guide you through this expanding investment opportunity, by providing tailored expertise to your unique investment needs.

How to tackle today’s urgent pension challenges and strengthen your fund for the long term

• Are you thinking what they’re thinking? The five-year trends predicted by a State Street survey of 150 European pension funds, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
• Learn about the best strategies for managing funding gaps and tackling shortfalls.
• Hear expert solutions to the growing data challenge for pension funds, amid the focus on governance and reporting.
• What steps are pension funds taking now to “future proof” their plans for the long term?

Speakers:
• Jörg Ambrosius, Senior Vice President, State Street Global Services
• Paola Bergamaschi, Senior Vice President, , State Street Global Markets
• Raymond Haines, Head of European Strategy and Research, Investment Solutions Group, State Street Global Advisors
• Nikolaus Schmidt-Narischkin, Managing Director at DB Advisors Fiduciary Management

Moderator:
• Brendan Maton, IPE

Creating opportunities out of the drama in Europe:
How a disciplined approach can generate attractive levels of income in a low yielding market environment

The issues
• Is the euro crisis over? Did the ECB draw a line in the sand with its OMT initiative and its stated intention to do “whatever it takes”. Or are we looking at a re-run of the dramatic pre-euro convergence of the late 1990’s?
• Do Italian / Spanish assets offer value? Many investors liquidated their Italian and Spanish fixed income assets in 2011 and 2012. Will they be tempted to buy them back?
• Should we be concerned about German sovereign credit quality?
• Will Europe’s periphery follow through with its structural reforms and what will be the upside?
• What is driving credit spreads: Fundamentals (arguably deteriorating in Europe at least) or abundant liquidity supplied by central banks? Or both?
• Can credit spreads tighten further?

The strategy
•How do we generate alpha in 2013? Pioneer will present some ideas to capture the upside and, perhaps more importantly, protect the downside in Europe in 2013.

SPEAKERS:
Cosimo Marasciulo, Head of Government Bond and FX, International
Garret Walsh, Head of Credit Research Europe

Simon Lee of eSecLending and
Matt Chessum of Aberdeen Asset Management
Will share their insights on
• Changes in
- Supply & Demand
- Participant behaviour
- Regulation
• Strategic opportunities for
- Revenue growth
- Liquidity
- Collateral management

Building a portfolio strategy to capture factor premiums

Introduction

Tail risk has gained a considerable profile because of the major risk events that characterised the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 and subsequent market volatility. Recent research by SSgA and the Economist has revealed that investors now seem more wary about the impact of tail risk events on their portfolios, having experienced significant drawdowns. They’re seeking ways to help guard their investments from future tail risk events. This webcast will discuss:

• Key findings of the SSgA and Economist research
• How have changing perceptions of tail risk affected the investment strategies of institutional investors?
• Where might investors look to address tail risk concerns?
• The merits of a blended convergent/divergent investment strategy
• The role of CTA and managed futures within a Tail Risk mitigation solution

Indexes in the Changing Investment Landscape
Current, possibly unintended, exposures within institutional portfolios:
How Defensive and Dynamic indexes can help you understand and manage risk
from Russell Indexes, Russell Investments

We invite you to join Russell market experts to hear why the intelligent use of risk-oriented indexes can be beneficial to institutional portfolios. They will offer an overview of risk-weighted indexes and look at how they differ from traditional indexes. They will also offer insight into Defensive and Dynamic Indexes and their ability to enable investors to go beyond traditional style measures to consider quality and volatility, in addition to stock price, to more comprehensively evaluate company risk.

Join Lloyd Raynor, Senior Consultant, Consulting—EMEA, Russell Investments and Rolf Agather, Managing Director of Research and Innovation, Russell Indexes, Russell Investments, to hear their perspectives on volatility management in institutional portfolios:

Lloyd and Rolf will share their insights on:
• What are risk oriented indexes and why are institutions interested?
• What are the current institutional exposures and what should drive institutional allocation targets?
• Developing a new process for analysis of market and manager performance
• How has a risk-based approach behaved in practice? The impact across extreme markets, up/down markets and sector weightings.

Insights into investment and economic analysis from Northern Trust

Every year, our investment experts produce a range of long-term forecasts which look at economic activity and financial market returns. They produce a report called the Capital Market Assumptions which provides a valuable five-year view on the markets.

We are offering you a unique chance to join our experts and hear first-hand how they formulate our forecasts and the key themes they will be watching over the coming years.

Join Jim McDonald, Chief Investment Strategist, as he shares the process we go through to develop these views and takes a detailed look at three of the key themes of our five-year outlook;

• Beyond monetary policy (Sticky & Sneaky inflation)
• The separation of company versus country
• Local politics for global problems

Hosted by:
Brendan Maton
IPE

Key Speakers:
Jim McDonald
Chief Investment Strategist
Northern Trust

Claire Meier
Senior Fixed Income Analyst, asset management
EMEA
Northern Trust

Speaker: Dr. Shane Shepherd, Head of Fixed-Income Research, Research Affiliates, LLC

Government policies designed to suppress interest rates and reduce debt payments are a form of “financial repression.” Particularly attractive to large developed-market nations who control their own currencies, recent examples include quantitative easing, mandatory lending to the government by domestic institutions, caps on interest rates, and limits on cross-border capital movements. When these policies produce negative real interest rates, they impose the equivalent of a tax on bond investors. Traditional bond indices, which are heavily weighted toward the biggest debtors, are adversely affected by these non-market forces. Shifting the rules to an approach based on a country’s economic size can greatly mitigate this exposure and lower credit and duration exposures.