Sustainable indexes largely outperformed during the first quarter of 2020 amid market turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to BlackRock Inc.’s latest sustainability report. “While this short time period is not determinative, it aligns with the resilience we have seen in sustainable strategies during prior downturns,” said the report. The big question for institutional […]
The vast majority (96 per cent) of institutional investors feel they have an important role to play in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, social and economic inequality and the need for infrastructure development, according to a new survey by Natixis Investment Managers. About half (48 per cent) of survey respondents said institutional […]
The Investment Management Corp. of Ontario is committing US$250 million to Apollo Global Management Inc.’s new Accord Fund III series B. The fund is focused on acquiring credits that have traded down due to liquidity-driven selling and non-economic reasons. “This is an example of IMCO adapting to market conditions and exploiting our liquidity very quickly so that clients have […]
With some jurisdictions gently reducing coronavirus-imposed restrictions, institutional investors are beginning to lay out possible scenarios for economic recovery. The terms V- and U-shaped recovery, along with arguments over which is more likely, have swirled throughout the past few months as economies around the world shut down huge swathes of their normal activities. Alessio de Longis, […]
Even before the coronavirus began affecting capital markets, fixed income investors were becoming more risk averse, according to Invesco’s latest survey. Close to half (43 per cent) of investors surveyed in late 2019 said they felt the then economic cycle had a year or less left to run and were adapting their portfolios accordingly. In some cases, this change […]
The Alberta Investment Management Corp.’s board of directors has released a statement outlining its response to the poor performance of its volatility trading strategy. In the wake of the coronavirus crisis, the strategy resulted in a loss of $2.1 billion or about two per cent of the AIMCo’s portfolio. “Oversight of AIMCo’s investment strategies and risk management is […]
Public companies are deferring long-term capital expenditure, pausing share repurchase programs and cutting dividends to deal with the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis. But companies in the health-care and information technology sectors are proving to be more resilient, said Nick Getaz, vice-president and portfolio manager in Franklin Templeton’s equity group, in a webinar on Thursday. “At this point, […]
The MSCI Inc. is launching a new set of indexes focusing on disruptive innovation, building on the index provider’s megatrend index suite. The new indexes will focus on companies in fields like autonomous technologies, genomics, fintech and next generation internet. The new indexes will use insights from ARK Investment Management, a firm specializing in analyzing […]
The extent of fiscal and monetary intervention in the economy in response to the coronavirus crisis is likely to lead to deficits unlike anything seen before and result in asset prices faring better over the near term than the overall economy, said Bert Clark, president and chief executive officer of the Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, […]
In 2009, when Vincent Morin walked through the doors of Air Canada as the vice-president of asset allocation and strategy for its investment division, he faced a tough situation. The company’s eight defined benefit pension plans, which buy units of a single master trust fund, were facing a $2.6 billion deficit. In the following years, […]