Name: U.S. Small Caps: Darkest Before the Dawn?
Start: 2022-09-06T13:00:00Z
End: 2022-09-06T13:00:58.000Z
Location: BrightTALK
Rating: 4.7

This webcast channel is for pension funds and other institutional investment professionals in Europe, the USA and Asia. It is particularly relevant for pension fund executives, trustees, consultants and investment managers. IPE will be bringing its community live interviews with leading figures in the market, hosting roundtable discussions on specific topics such as asset allocation and also sharing latest thought-leadership from investment experts.

Kick off the new year with Allspring as we unveil our Fixed Income Roadmap for 2026.

Discover the six key investment themes that we believe will shape the pulse of global Fixed Income and Credit markets in the year ahead.

Hear insights from three senior leaders representing Allspring’s platform, drawing on perspectives from our 70+ Global Credit Research analysts and 60+ portfolio managers, who collectively manage US$485 billion in Fixed Income assets for institutional and wholesale clients worldwide.

Delving into key Fixed Income opportunities  and risks, we will discuss:
1. Mind the Gap – Diverging Paths: US vs the Rest of the World
2. Fiscal Dominance – Monetary vs Fiscal Impact on Yields
3. Separating Signal from Static in Government Bonds
4. Fundamental Pest Control in Global Credit Markets
5. The Hunt Continues – Finding Value in Securitised Assets
6. Artificial Intelligence Gets Real – The Tangible Impact of AI on Fixed Income Markets

Allspring’s overall market outlook 2026, can be found here: https://www.allspringglobal.com/campaigns/2026-investment-outlook/

As in previous years, this session will also feature the official unveiling of Allspring's 2026 Sustainable Investing Outlook, highlighting the sustainability forces expected to shape global markets — in Fixed Income and beyond.

Allspring’s Fixed Income Roadmap for 2026: Taking a Market Pulse - Six Key Themes for ’26

Join us for an in-depth discussion on how pension funds can navigate the evolving global investment landscape as we approach 2026. With ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, regulatory developments, and demographic shifts influencing long-term strategy, this session offers timely insights for investors seeking clarity and perspective in a dynamic environment.

As global conditions continue to change, so do the factors shaping portfolio decisions. From inflation and interest rate movements to geopolitical developments and sustainability considerations, pension funds must remain adaptable to support long-term objectives. 

Featuring insights from Monica Defend, Head of the Amundi Investment Institute & Chief Strategist, and Dominic Byrne, Global Head of Retirement Solutions, the session will explore how asset allocation strategies are evolving in response to global trends — offering guidance for pension professionals navigating long-term investment decisions in an increasingly complex and interconnected world.

Dynamic Allocation: Navigating Market Shifts for Pension Fund Resilience

Europäische börsennotierte Immobiliengesellschaften (REITs) erleben eine Renaissance: Das NAV-Wachstum ist zurück, gestützt durch hohe Vermietungsquoten und robustes Mietwachstum. Nach einer Phase der Unsicherheit haben sich die Bilanzen deutlich verbessert, die Verschuldung wurde reduziert und die Finanzierungskosten haben sich normalisiert – ein Umfeld, das neue Expansionschancen eröffnet. Die Folge: Aufwärtsrevisionen bei den Ertragsprognosen und ein gestärktes Vertrauen in die Zukunft des Sektors.
Und dennoch: Viele europäische REITs werden weiterhin mit deutlichen Abschlägen zum NAV gehandelt. Für institutionelle Investoren stellt sich daher die zentrale Frage: Ist jetzt der richtige Zeitpunkt, um börsennotierte Immobilien zu erwerben?

Erfahren Sie mehr im exklusiven IPE-Webinar am 4. Dezember, wenn die Fondsmanager des DPAM Listed Real Estate Teams ihre Einschätzungen und Strategien teilen. Unsere Experten zeigen auf:
• Warum europäische börsennotierte Immobilien aktuell besonders attraktiv sind
• Wie börsennotierte Immobilien eine effiziente und liquide Ergänzung zu Direktinvestitionen darstellen – mit hoher Transparenz, Diversifikation und starker ESG-Integration
• Wie DPAMs aktives Management gezielt Chancen nutzt und nachhaltigen Mehrwert in einem sich wandelnden Markt schafft
Jetzt anmelden und wertvolle Einblicke gewinnen – direkt von den Spezialisten für europäische Immobilienaktien.

Mit Discount zur Chance: Wertpotenziale europäischer börsennotierter Immobilien erschließen

The private credit market has experienced remarkable growth in recent years, but its success and expansion has naturally attracted scrutiny with some observers questioning its sustainability. This paper offers an alternative perspective: the current state of private credit represents a natural progression of a maturing asset class.
Join our upcoming webcast to explore:
The monolith myth—this is no longer one market but a diverse ecosystem of risk profiles, borrower attributes, capital structures and regional dynamics.
Asset flows and underwriting trends—private credit has drawn significant capital, but that capital has not been distributed evenly. Understanding where capital is concentrated, and where it is scarce, is essential for identifying opportunities.
Manager selection in a maturing market—how investors can discern quality and navigate nuance in an increasingly sophisticated landscape.
The webcast will feature Laura Parrot, Senior Managing Director and Head of Private Fixed Income at Nuveen; Michael Massarano, Partner & Deputy CIO at Arcmont Asset Management; and Randy Schwimmer, Vice Chairman, Chief Investment Strategist at Churchill, bringing together diverse perspectives from across the private credit spectrum. For Financial Professionals only

Private credit's next phase: finding opportunity in a maturing market

As regulatory shifts accelerate the growth of private lending, the global opportunity set is expanding. Capturing the most compelling value now demands deep market insight, disciplined portfolio construction and integrated origination across regions.
 
Join Barings’ Orla Walsh and Matt Freund for a webcast on the evolving dynamics of global private credit
 
Discussion Highlights:
- How macro forces—from rate volatility to geopolitics—are shaping private credit.
- Why the asset class remains attractive and how investors are responding.
- Regional trends: spreads, deal structures and sentiment in the U.S. vs. Europe.
- Middle market focus: portfolio construction in today’s environment.
- M&A and deal flow: signs of a rebound and implications for pricing power
-Global perspective: investor priorities and Barings’ positioning.

Global Private Credit – Strategic Shifts & Pricing Power

Institutional investors face a rapidly evolving environment of legal, regulatory, and technological change. From AI-driven misstatements and US deregulation to global class actions and state-level corporate law battles, the balance between boards, management, and shareholders is being tested as never before.

Join leading securities litigation experts from Labaton Keller Sucharow, DRRT, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, and Kahn Swick & Foti as they discuss the key developments shaping investor protection, enforcement trends, and collective recovery opportunities worldwide.

Protecting Investor Rights in a Changing Global Landscape

As private infrastructure debt cements its position as a strategic pillar in institutional portfolios, investors continue to face a fundamental challenge, how to assess, price, and benchmark credit risk in a market with limited transparency and few standardised ratings.
Join Scientific Infra & Private Assets (SIPA) for a high-level session on how InfraMetrics®, the industry’s leading data-driven framework, is transforming the analysis of private infrastructure debt.

Built on thousands of observed transactions, SIPA’s InfraMetrics® Private Debt Framework delivers market-consistent credit-spread premia across regions, sectors, and maturities, with a model precision averaging below 6%. The session will reveal how infrastructure debt behaves across cycles, how spreads respond to macro shifts, and how InfraMetrics® benchmarks compare with corporate indices.

Discover why infrastructure debt consistently shows lower volatility, faster recoveries, and superior risk-adjusted returns and how InfraMetrics® enables Direct Alpha measurement, setting a new standard for transparency, governance, and investor confidence in private credit.

A New Paradigm for Infrastructure Debt Analysis

Stablecoins and tokenized assets are shifting from niche to mainstream. With hundreds of billions already in circulation and daily transaction volumes rivaling traditional networks, settlement in tokenized form will soon be standard. For pensions and insurers, the opportunity is to harness programmability - not just speed - to transform balance sheet management. Programmable money is not just faster cash - it is the foundation of a financial system where yield, efficiency, and resilience are embedded in the rails. Institutions that act now will capture operational gains and help set tomorrow’s standards, while late adopters risk being locked out of the new infrastructure.

Why Programmability Matters
• Instant settlement: Delivery-versus-payment in seconds, not days.
• Conditional payouts: Smart contracts trigger insurance claims, escrow, or benefit flows automatically.
• Real-time reconciliations: Reduces errors, operational risk, and audit costs.
• Cost efficiency: Up to 60% savings on cross-border payments compared with legacy rails.

Tokenization in Practice
• Familiar assets, new wrappers: Bonds, MMFs, and private credit issued as tokens with built-in compliance.
• Auditability: Ledgers provide real-time cap tables and immutable ownership trails.
• Balance sheet agility: Intraday liquidity and automated FX-hedging previously unavailable.

Tokenized Money Market Funds (tMMFs)
• Convert idle cash or stablecoin reserves into yielding, government-backed pools.
• Provide same-day or 24/7 redemption, aligning with modern market hours.
• Enhance systemic resilience by anchoring stablecoin reserves in high-quality collateral.

Programmable Money and Investments: The Tokenized Future of Institutional Finance

In recent years, Europe’s defence sector has seen a surge in investor interest. Once considered off-limits, it has become one of the most prominent investment themes amid a historic increase in European NATO defence spending.

Yet questions remain over how defence fits within Europe’s broader commitment to responsible investing. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, ESG European equity funds have increased their exposure to aerospace & defence by a factor of 2.7, with 43% now holding defence stocks. Policymakers and investors are rethinking what ‘responsible’ means in an era of rearmament, industrial policy, and strategic autonomy.

This webinar will explore:
-Accessing the defence spending boom within an ESG investment framework to comply with Article 8, including a deep dive into index construction
-An update on the investment case for European defence
-A look at valuations following a period of expanding multiples

Reconciling Responsibility with ReArmament: Can Defence Investing be Article 8?

This webcast will explore Generali Asset Management’s private debt offering, a key component of the Generali Investments platform. The session will focus on two strategic pillars:

• Direct lending to SMEs, enabling access to financing for underserved businesses and contributing to economic resilience.

• Private credit secondaries, offering liquidity and diversification opportunities in a maturing market.
Speakers Sandrine Richard and Marco Busca will share their perspectives on market dynamics, ESG integration, and how Generali Asset Management is positioning itself to meet investor needs. The session will include a live Q&A and be available on-demand.

Financing the Future: Direct Lending for SMEs & Credit Secondaries

Hear seasoned portfolio managers Anando Maitra and Ashton Parker discuss two innovative alternatives to traditional high yield investing.

Rethinking high yield: research driven solutions by Lombard Odier Investment Managers

CLOs (Collateralised Loan Obligations) have caught the attention of many institutional investors amid their attractive yields and diversification potential. Capturing opportunities in the securitised market requires an active approach. Join Denis Struc, Portfolio Manager and Kareena Moledina, Client Portfolio Manager Lead, EMEA, from Janus Henderson as they delve into:

• Active where active matters: Why CLO ETFs and why now?

• Navigating investment across CLOs: Multi-layered analysis is essential in conducting comprehensive review of structures and collateral performance;

• Regulations: A requirement for strong and robust underwriting, together with an understanding of and adherence to European securitisation regulations;

Important information:
Marketing communication | Outside of the U.S.: For professionals and qualified investors only | Not for onward distribution The value of an investment and the income from it can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the amount originally invested.

The views presented are as of the date published. They are for information purposes only and should not be used or construed as investment, legal or tax advice or as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security, investment strategy or market sector. Past performance does not predict future returns. Not all products or services are available in all jurisdictions. The contents of this material have not been approved or endorsed by any regulatory agency. Issued by Janus Henderson Investors. Janus Henderson is a trademark of Janus Henderson Group plc or one of its subsidiaries. © Janus Henderson Group plc.

Active CLO ETFs: Why and why now for institutional investors?

Join us for a webinar on Scientific Portfolio’s latest study, showing that climate alignment equity strategies are often seen as objective and solely science-based but in reality embed ethical choices.

The study reveals how distinct ethical approaches - such as the principled investor focusing on absolute Scope 1 emissions, the utilitarian investor emphasising efficiency, or the harmonist investor incorporating Scope 3 emissions - influence the assessment of portfolio emissions alignment. Discover why transparency on these ethical foundations can help investors customise strategies in accordance with their objectives.

Ethics in Climate Investing — Why Portfolio Alignment Is More Than Just Science

Resilience in Focus
As post-Covid market effects ease, Japan growth equities have shown recent quarters of relative strength versus local and global benchmarks, reflecting past trends. With 25+ years in Japanese equities, we’ve seen quality growth companies demonstrate resilience, supported by strong balance sheets and disciplined management through varied markets.

Post-Covid Market Distortions
This strength is often overlooked. In the three years after Covid, performance — as in many markets — grew narrowly concentrated. In Japan, attention shifted to “cheap-Yen beneficiaries”, fuelled by currency weakness and flows exiting China, often mislabelled as “value” stocks.

Enduring Growth Built on Innovation
Japan’s growth story runs deeper. Positioned at Asia’s gateway — the world’s largest engine of population and economic expansion — Japan has long enabled technology and aspirational brands. Homegrown innovators and leading semiconductor companies have transformed a resource-poor archipelago into the world’s second-largest developed economy. They adapted, endured and thrived.

Independent Thinking, Shared Expertise
At Comgest, we’ve learned from that resilience. When we began investing in Japan, more than 30 peer funds targeted its growth names. Today, Morningstar lists just four funds — including ours —above JP¥100 billion with 3+ year track records. Supported by 40+ analysts and portfolio managers globally, our independence keeps us benchmark agnostic, enabling us to uncover quality companies others often overlook.

On-the-Ground Insight
Our 18-year presence in Japan has been critical to our success. While regulators pursue incremental governance reforms, we have long partnered with management teams sharing our long-term, quality growth vision — often trailblazers driving change throughout Japan’s modern history.

Join Us
Our webinar, Japan: The Case for Resilience, explores why we believe the next chapter for Japan’s quality growth companies is only beginning.

Japan: The Case for Resilience

Presented by: 
Dr. Irina Sidorovitch, Managing Director - Co-Head of DWS’s Investment Solutions team and Head of Qi Quantitative Investments
Lucas Vukotich, CESGA, Qi Product Specialist Analyst
Artur Stoll, Xtrackers Product Specialist Analyst

ETFs have established themselves as efficient portfolio building blocks for building targeted exposure to specific market segments. However, the growth of the ETF industry is driven not only by efficiency and scalability, but also by constant innovation. 

Recently, the topic of "Active ETFs" has come into focus as one of the major innovations, where active management meets the advantages of the ETF fund structure. 

DWS combines both areas of expertise: over 60 years of experience in active management and, with Xtrackers, one of the largest ETF providers in Europe. 

We are, therefore, pleased to introduce to the combination of these two core competencies of DWS:

Xtrackers Equity Enhanced Active ETFs*

• Three Active ETFs launched in May 2025 providing Global, European, and US equity exposure
• Equity strategies are based on a proprietary investment process, proven since 2001, for assessing the alpha potential of equities and risk-conscious portfolio construction.
• The strategies aim to achieve the most robust medium- to long-term excess returns possible compared to their respective benchmarks with low active risk. The target range for the ex-ante tracking error is 0.75% to 1.5%.
• Strategies based on this investment process have achieved outperformance in 19 out of 23 years with an average information ratio of 1.14 (as of December 2024 based on the corresponding composite* across all strategies. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance).

During the webinar, we will provide an overview of the active ETF market, including the features of our new products and the investment process.
We look forward to your participation!

Xtrackers Equity Enhanced Active ETFs – Targeting alpha at a reasonable (relative) risk

While the global real estate sector currently lags behind its decarbonization targets, Nuveen Real Estate's latest research reveals that Europe stands out as the region moving fastest on the decarbonization trajectory — creating both challenges and opportunities for institutional investors.

Join us for an upcoming webcast as we dive deeper into the research and explore:
• The six indicators Nuveen Real Estate believe are impacting real estate's transition to become net zero by 2050
• How Europe is leading the global decarbonization efforts, creating investment opportunities amid regulatory changes
• Navigating the energy transition in debt and equity portfolios with insights from Christian Janssen, Head of European Real Estate Debt, and Andy Rich, Fund Manager for Nuveen's European Cities Strategy

Tracking the real estate energy transition

How should private infrastructure funds be benchmarked to provide meaningful, comparable insights for investors? This webinar will explore the importance of adopting a systematic approach to benchmarking, the role of direct alpha in evaluating performance, and how large institutional investors are assessing funds and managers.

As a special guest, we have Avi Turetsky, Partner, Head of Quantitative Research Group to discuss how Ares applies this approach and uses SIPA indices to better understand manager performance.

Join our speakers as they discuss best practices, emerging challenges, and the tools needed to ensure benchmarking truly supports better decision-making in infrastructure investing.

Benchmarking Private Infrastructure Funds – Doing It Right

Flows into European stocks have accelerated this year as investors seek a cheaper, more diversified alternative to other markets. Several national and sector benchmarks in the region are on track for their strongest annual returns in years.

In this webcast, Lukas Ahnert, Senior Product Specialist at Xtrackers by DWS, and Arun Singhal, Head of Product Management at STOXX, will discuss the following:

• How have investor allocations to equity regions shifted this year? Do European stocks offer more than just value?
• Selectivity in Europe: Identifying markets segments and sectors that have seen the most momentum and where valuation differentials may present further opportunities.
• Indexing in a new regime: Index design is becoming increasingly ‘smart’ and targeted, shaped by shifting market dynamics, new economic and technological trends, and emerging datasets. Explore real-world cases. 

Join us for the webinar by signing up here.

Decoding Europe’s equity comeback: Market drivers and index innovation

Growth and Value Perspectives

The first six months of 2022 was the worst first half for U.S. small-cap stocks since 1973. Are we headed for a sustained recovery for the asset class, or will inflation and a potential recession result in continued underperformance versus large caps?
 
Join American Century Investments for a discussion about U.S. small-caps with Mike Rode, CFA, Vice President and Senior Client Portfolio Manager and hear perspectives from both sides of the style spectrum with Senior Portfolio Managers Jackie Wagner of Small Cap Growth and Jeff John of Small Cap Value.

Presented by:
– Mike Rode, CFA, Vice President, Senior Client Portfolio Manager, American Century Investments
– Jeff John, CFA, Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager, American Century Investments
– Jackie Wagner, Vice President, Portfolio Manager, American Century Investments

Moderated by: Brendan Maton

U.S. Small Caps: Darkest Before the Dawn?

US small caps

Equities

Equities investments

Investment Strategy

Asset Management

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UK Wealth Managers

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U.S. Small Caps: Darkest Before the Dawn?

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