Brian Bollen's Blog

No Pain No Gain For Eurozone Banks

By Alan Higgins, Chief Investment Officer, UK at Coutts

Financial fragmentation remains a problem in the eurozone – Spanish businesses face borrowing costs close to 5% while French counterparts can borrow at 2%. While previous stress tests have failed to restore confidence in European banks, the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) Asset Quality Review (AQR) could help fix this.

ESG Fuelling Chemical Growth/Innovation

Speed read: ESG factors fuelling growth and innovation in the chemical industry. The chemical industry has long suffered from poor reputation due to its adverse effects on environment, health and safety. However, over the past three decades Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors have not only improved the industry’s impact on the planet, but also its bottom line, ING Investment Management (ING IM) highlights.

Vietnam To Help Drive Recovery: Barings

Speed read: Investors should be encouraged by Vietnam’s stable economy, a positive trade balance and that exports grew by an impressive 15.4% in 2013, believes Barings. While ASEAN markets declined in the second half of last year, they have recovered in 2014. Indonesia, in particular, could benefit from a reformist agenda following forthcoming Presidential elections in July.

EDHEC-Risk Institute Cautions On Diversification

 

In a new publication entitled Improved Risk Reporting with Factor-Based Diversification Measures, EDHEC-Risk Institute encourages institutional investors to look carefully at the effectiveness of their portfolio diversification.

Buy And Build Values Continue Rise

Silverfleet Capital, in conjunction with mergermarket, today publishes the findings of its European Buy & Build Monitor for H2 2013. The Buy & Build Monitor tracks add-on activity undertaken by European companies backed by private equity; 129 add-ons were reported in H2 2013 compared to a H1 number of 141 which has been revised upwards from 124.

Russia To Stabilise After Heavy Sell-off

The founder of Franklin Templeton Investments is often referred to for his famous observation that the best time to buy into a country is when there is blood on the streets. Nathan Griffiths, lead portfolio manager emerging markets equities at ING Investment Management is not saying quite that, but is fishing off the same pier.

Extreme Weather Driving Commodities

By  Alastair Baker and Patrick Brenner, fund managers, multi-asset, Schroders

Commodities, as measured by the DJUBS Commodities Index, have returned 8.3% year to date to 6 March. This strong performance was driven by one factor: weather. Whilst weather has the potential to have a negative impact on agriculture prices, 2014 has seen extreme weather put upward pressure on prices. The weather shock came in two parts. First was the severe weather experienced in the US. Demand for natural gas rocketed as it is the primary source of energy used to heat homes in the US.

Et tu, Brute?

Mint – Blain’s Morning Porridge  - March 27 2014

Looks like I’ve been proved wrong about Europe again. I’ve said the periphery rally must be just about played out, arguing there should be a natural credit spread between Germany and the rest of the eurozone, and the background noise and risks behind the ECB’s “anything it takes” fakery could still be tested.

CACEIS Launches New Client Relations Portal

CACEIS reports that it has launched a new web portal that is optimised for mobile. It will enhance interactivity and facilitate access to information on all CACEIS services and entities. It says this new portal is already used by more than half of its clients and will be rolled out to the remainder by mid-2014.

How many battalions has the Pope?

Mint – Blain’s Morning Porridge  - March 26 2014

My first observation this morning is a jealous but practical one. If I was able to make $800m by selling a stake in a 10-year old company that had only launched one successful product, you can be pretty sure I’d be off having the time of my life and that Candy Crush II would be unlikely to materialise any time soon. And if I had billions in my pocket and a passion for new tech stuff, I’d probably spend most of my time buying the companies rather than just the gear – but hats off to Mark Zuckerberg for doing his deal without any investment banks. There’s a man who knows what he likes…

Global Growth On Track; Shame About Ukraine

Speed read: Schroders Chief Economist, Keith Wade, comments on global growth indicators and how the downside risks could be compounded by the crisis in Ukraine.

Up, Down Or Sideways?

Mint – Blain’s Morning Porridge  - March 25 2014

Nobody knows if a stock is going to go up, down, sideways or in circles…

Fun and games in the new issue markets – lots of fast money going into new deals, but an absolute lack of follow through from real buyers. What does that tell us? Accounts concerned about the geopolitical situation? Approaching quarter end? (It’s been pretty miserable in terms of performance for many players.) Bottom line is that new issues are sticky. We’d be advising caution – but who can resist wanting to play a high coupon corporate hybrid or an attractive bank subordinated deal? Gluttony is a mortal sin..

Chinese Caution, And Fear

Maarten-Jan Bakkum, senior emerging markets strategist at ING Investment Management discussing market concerns surrounding China

Speed read: though a growing number of economists and strategy experts are moving towards a more negative analysis, they are still very cautious. There are growing worries, but the tendency is to sit on the fence. Apparently hardly anyone in the financial world is bold enough to draw clear conclusions, even though the risks are enormous. The past five years have seen unprecedented growth of total Chinese debt as a percentage of GDP by more than seventy percentage points. This will put the financial system under great pressure if the economy continues to slow down.

Phoenix Appoints BNY Mellon

BNY Mellon says it has been selected by the City of Phoenix Employees' Retirement System (COPERS) to provide custody, accounting, and securities lending solutions to plan assets valued at $2n.

I haven’t seen Berlin yet

Mint – Blain’s Morning Porridge  - March 24 2014

I haven’t seen Berlin yet, from the ground or the air, and I plan on doing both…

A few months ago we said the UK’s embarrassing Co-Op Bank saga didn’t feel like it was over, and we had a gut feel for the likelihood of further shocks to come. I was warning ongoing banking problems aren’t just going to occur in what the Torygraph (aka Daily Telegraph) still thinks of as “overseas Europe”.

What Next For European Equities?

By Steve Cordell, fund manager, European equities at Schroders

The European equity market demonstrated its resilience in February, notching up gains despite the distractions of a change of prime minister in Italy, turmoil in Ukraine, and a largely underwhelming earnings season. There is ample scope for further share price gains to come as the eurozone recovery gains traction and corporate earnings are poised to show improvement.

Liquor and drugs and a flesh machine

Mint – Blain’s Morning Porridge  - March 21 2014

Here comes Johnny Yen again, with the liquor and drugs and a flesh machine…

First day of spring and a nice equinoxial breeze whipping up the river as I strolled into the office. As usual my first conversation is with my Macro man, Martin Malone. “What’s up?”…. This morning not much except the now permanent noise from tensions in Ukraine and more Russians being put on the banned list. If Abramovich is banned, does that mean we get to lock up Chelsea fans? Just asking… 

Capital Markets Fuel Economic Growth

Capital markets are significant drivers of economic growth and increasing their size could compensate for the post-financial crisis decline in bank lending, according to new research by two leading academics commissioned by AIMA, the global hedge fund industry association.

Fed To Tighten Sooner Than Expected

Azad Zangana, European Economist at Schroders, comments on yesterday’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting

“Janet Yellen took charge of her first Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting as chair of the Federal Reserve, but while actions taken have been as expected, the change in communication appears to have confused the market.

Euroclear Sweden extends fund universe via FundSettle

Euroclear Sweden, the Swedish Central Securities Depository (CSD), today launches a link to Euroclear Bank’s automated processing platform for cross-border and domestic funds – known as FundSettle. In so doing, Swedish investment firms now have access to over 80,000 foreign funds from over 25 markets via Euroclear Sweden.