Market Outlook and Portfolio Positioning: Dealing with an uncertain world

Emerging markets are in a paradox right now. They are seeing tremendous growth yet have debt denominated In a strong dollar, which threatens to halter their growth and thus ability to pay back their debts. They have more ways than ever to trade, yet are suffering from trade wards. Their economies are not yet developed, but some are on the brink of adopting more technologically advanced currencies than the developed countries.

What are good strategies to take advantage of this situation?

This panel will join leading emerging market participants to discuss:

- Which emerging markets will benefit from the potential political & economic outcomes of the next 18 months
- How to think about where opportunities lie in chaos.
- which securities are seeing the most flows and why?
- Which industries will be most affected by trade wars, a strong US dollar, and elections around the world

Emerging Markets will be the recipients of the most asset flows of any asset class by Institutional Investors, according to JPMorgan Asset Management.

In Asia, investors are trying to find opportunity not just in china, but in other Asian countries that will benefit from a growing Chinese economy.

Trade and industry developments such as TPP and the Asia Region Funds Passport promise to galvanise investment across all of APAC. In South America, a commonly over-looked area, reforms in currency, pension, education and trade present investment opportunities as well. Africa is heavily invested in by China, and Africa’s collective GDP is expanding faster than the world’s average, and it is forecast to accelerate over the next five years to become the world’s second-fastest-growing region once again.

This webinar will cover:
- What will be the impacts of a strong US dollar on markets?
- How will trade agreements, and disagreements, will shape markets in the next 6 months?
- What industries will see the most and least activity from investors?
- Which emerging markets funds are seeing inflows and outflows, and why?

A few years ago "ESG” was just a page at the back of a presentation. Today it has achieved greater prominence with new initiatives such as impact investing and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. However, questions still remain about what ESG integration really means and whether the increasing use of frameworks and questionnaires is distracting from engagement.

This expert panel will look at what ESG integration means and at the practical implementation of ESG considerations within portfolios. They will discuss whether ESG can be implemented, at best, without negatively impacting returns or whether there is recent evidence that it can actually benefit both risk and return.

While impact investing dominates the headlines, most of the assets that firms manage on behalf of their clients integrate an assessment of ESG factors into their process but do not tilt towards sustainable investments. The panel will discuss this issue and the likely future trends in ESG investment including how ESG fits in with the Mega trends defined by the PRI or WEF.

Panellists

Justin Simler, Independent Industry Expert
Richard Lightbound, Managing Partner & CEO - EMEA, ROBO Global
Adrie Heinsbroek, Head of Responsible Investing, NN Investment Partners
Meryam Omi, Head of Sustainability & Responsible Investment Strategy, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM)

The debate surrounding the use of ESG tools and information is clearly favouring ESG as a tool for lower risk and enhancing return.

In the live webinar, we explain why companies and investors need to be thinking about ESG and intangibles to enable better performance and will take questions on ESG topics.

We review;

* the latest academic evidence on why ESG adds value
* the latest frontiers of ESG, use of SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)
* debates on the imperfection of Sustainability Ratings and divestment campaigns
* stewardship codes and increasing regulatory interest in ESG

Jake Warren, Founder of Message Heard, is totally focused on Podcasting.
In this interview, we discuss:
The evolution of Podcasting in the UK
What separates Podcasting from other forms of storytelling
Whether anyone can & should create a podcast
What separates a good Podcast from a bad Podcast
Using Podcasting for internal communications
How Podcasting allows you to do is own the narratives around your industry
How to approach internal vs. external storytelling

In this session, Kennedy Tsang and Harry Yu, from SBI E2 Family Advisors and SBI China Capital, will walk you through:

- History of shrimp farming in the role of creating social and economic change;
- The “SEED” principle to sustainable win-win success
- Customisation of the model to enable social impact investment;
- Keys to success for shrimp farming social impact investing;

This session is specifically designed for HNW individuals, investment managers and funds that are interested in social impact investment.

Raméz A. Baassiri, a entrepreneur in multigenerational family business and author of the Amazon best seller book, and Forbes book Interrupted Entrepreneurship: - Embracing Change in Family Business.

This book talks about the need for a family investment fund in order to face, handle and manage interruptions in family business.

In this discussion we talk about:

What separates an investment fund from a Family Investment Fund
How his Investment Fund is structured
What areas of industry the business operates in
Whether multiple investment Funds are a good idea or not

Plus much more!

Enjoy.

People with savings want to earn a decent return without running too much risk. Some have saved out of their earnings, some have built up capital in a business which they sell, some have inherited some money. None of them want to throw it away. In an era of ultra-low interest rates just putting it in a bank means the value of your capital goes down each year, as prices are rising faster than the return on a deposit. That’s why many conclude they do need to take some more risk, to own some shares and bonds that offer a higher income but can also go down in value.

Investment managers need to maximise return for a given level of risk, and need to construct portfolios so not everything goes down at the same time if things do go wrong. This talk will examine how you spread your risks, and argues that over the longer term buying a portfolio of shares usually delivers a return above inflation, with a rising income from increasing dividends. Managers also are able to choose from a range of different countries with different currencies for their shares, and to look at the opportunities in commercial property as well. That can help find the right mix of return and risks.

In a year that has seen the $5tr Global ETF industry go from strength to strength, hear the opinion from thought leaders and industry insiders as to what drove that success.

You'll learn which new investment themes were launched in 2018, which ETFs gathered the most assets and returns and where the ETF market is heading in 2019.

With so many products to choose from hear the views of our panel as to what the industry trends will be in the year ahead.

Via our panel of investment professionals you will learn about the different ways that these diversified investment funds can be deployed in both bullish and bearish markets.


Allan Lane - Moderator (Co-Founder of Algo-Chain)
James McManus - Head of ETF Research - Nutmeg
Hector McNeil - Co CEO - HANetf
Irene Bauer - CIO Twenty20 Investments
John Swolfs - CEO Inside ETFs

Seilern Investment Management is an asset manager based in London that specializes in long-only equity investments. The investment strategy focuses exclusively on quality & growth stocks, and takes a long-term view.

At the heart of Seilern Investment Management lies an unwavering conviction in its investment philosophy as well as a disciplined and process driven approach to executing its strategy.

Michael Faherty, portfolio manager of Stryx World Growth, and Tassilo Seilern, Head of Research, will discuss the philosophy behind the funds, and the types of quality-growth companies that they look for.

The Heptagon Future Trends Fund provides investors with access to a high-conviction, concentrated portfolio of global equities that are exposed to a diverse set of themes, all of which look set to grow in importance.

The team at Heptagon Capital has been writing proprietary thematic commentaries on topics as varied as robotics and molecular diagnostics for the last seven years.

Heptagon subsequently launched a UCITS fund centred on its best-of-breed ideas derived from this research at the start of 2016. The Fund focuses on a wide number of themes (currently 12), but invests exclusively in businesses that offer pure-play exposure to the trends in question (defined as at least 75% revenue being theme-derived).

All of the businesses in which the Fund invests are market leaders in their respective fields, spending above-average levels of research and development in order to sustain their dominant position.

Leading plays on cybersecurity, alternative energy, and robotic-assisted surgery have been the biggest contributors to returns over the past year, highlighting the diversity of the Fund.

As Brexit approaches, some banks are relocating, currencies are fluctuating, and markets are moving as well - are there any possible scenarios are not priced into the market?

This webinar will cover:
The current state of negotiations.
Who will win and who will lose if brexit happens - and if it doesn't.
How Investment Managers are doing scenario planning.

Panellists
Jon 'JB' Beckett, Senior Manager - Fund Manager Assessment, Scottish Widows
James Alexander, UK Wealth and Asset Management, Accenture