The Fund Selection Blog

Nykredit selects Allianz Global Investors

After a competitive tendering process with 86 other companies the US Equity Strategy of RCM (an Allianz Global Investors company) has been awarded a 350 million Euro mandate by Nykredit, a financial services group based in Denmark.

“We believe that RCM´s flagship US Equity Strategy, managed by Seung Minn will continue to deliver consistent, above average returns going forward, based on the outstanding long term track record and a highly disciplined and proven investment process”, said Claus Bilde, Vice President and responsible for manager selection at Nykredit Asset Management.

Udo Frank, Chief Executive Officer of RCM, added: “We expect to grow assets and business for Nykredit in Denmark, working closely to support them with our flagship US Equity Strategy going forward. Within what remains an uncertain economic environment in the US, we continue to concentrate on delivering returns for our clients across all market conditions based on our proven investment process, and this what we aim to do for Nykredit.”

Pohjola fund of fund invests with Mirae

The Pohjola Asset Management has recently invested in the Mirae Asset Korea Equity Fund (SICAV) on behalf of its Asian and Global Emerging Markets funds-of-funds.

 

“Selecting Mirae Asset was an obvious choice for us given its vast investment experience in Asian equities and the Korea Equity fund’s solid performance track record. Given the modest equity market valuations and recent pullback of the Korean Won against EUR and USD, we believe that the Korean market provides good investment potential going forward, both in relative and absolute terms”, says Petri Venäläinen, Head of Manager Selection at Pohjola Asset management, in a written comment.

 

Sung Woo Kim, fund manager of the Mirae Asset Korea Equity Fund says that the Korean market has been characterised by low valuations and favourable earnings growth this year as operating profits of Korean companies are expected to increase by 30% year on year.

 

He adds: “As Korean companies have gained more ground in emerging markets and maintained sound finances during the recent financial crisis, they have been able to implement more aggressive expansion plans than global peers entering the recovery phase.  We believe that European investors are increasingly taking note of these dynamics and we will see more interest in the Korean market.”

Complete FundForum news coverage

There has been a lot written on the back of last weeks FundForum International, which celebrated its 20^th anniversary this year. You find links to all this coverage at the FundForum blog.

Successful panel with Nordic fund selectors

The room was packed when I moderated a panel with fund selectors from the Nordic region at the FundForum in Monaco this week. It was an honest discussion and the public was very pleased with the openness of the selectors – revealing what they are looking for right now in terms of mandates and new managers.

 

The panel consisted of Lars Holm-Pedersen, Head of External managers at PFA Pension in Denmark, Georg Skare Lund, Head of fund selection at Storebrand in Norway, Anders Landström, fund analyst at Länsförsäkringar in Sweden, Mattias Hagen, Head of manager selection at SEB Wealth Management and Allan Möller, Senior analyst at Danske Capital in Denmark. We were also joined by Christophe Girondel, Managing Director, Third Party Funds at Nordea Investment Funds in Luxembourg.

 

Are you also leaving for Monaco?

The taxi will pick us up in a couple of hours. It’s already time for the annual pilgrimage to Monaco and FundForum International. I think it will be a more upbeat event this year compared with the two previous ones. I will post regular updates from the conference.

New magazine on fund selection

The Nordic Fund Selection Journal just arrived from the printers - a key publication if you want insight on the fund selection community in the Nordic region. We will bring it to the FundForum in Monaco next week and it will be distributed with the next issue of Fondbranschen, the b2b magazine for the Nordic asset management industry.

Speaking at FundForum 2010 in Monaco

If you are interested in the Nordic fund selection market I’m happy to announce that I will be speaking on this topic at FundForum International 2010 in Monaco later this month where I will present our latest research. You find a brief intro to our findings at the FundForum blog.

 

After my own presentation I will moderate a panel session with five leading fund selectors from the Nordic region. I hosted a conference call with these panellists today and I am confident that we will be able to cover a number of interesting topics. Please join us for our session at 16.30 on June 29 at the Grimaldi Forum.

Fund selector Pia Hagen leaves Skandia

Max Matthiessen Värdepapper AB continues to strengthen the organization and has recruited the duo Pia Hagen and Christian Sterndahlen from Skandia Fonder. The team will join Max Matthiessen in mid-August.

 

Pia Hagen has been hired as Chief Investment Officer and manager of Max Matthiessen Värdepapper AB and she will be responsible for the company’s “Navigera” concept, i.e. its fund-of-fund offering. Christian Dahlen Stern has been hired as manager. Pia Hagen comes from a position as Chief Investment Officer and portfolio manager at Skandia Fonder where she had the overall responsibility for the fund range and specifically for its four fund-of-funds and the multi-manager offering - Skandia Swedish Stars.

 

Skandia Fonder has begun a recruitment process to find replacements for Pia and Christian.

New date for Nordic Fund Selection Forum

The volcano on Iceland has caused both practical problems as well as general uncertainy for the fund groups and external speakers we are working with for the Nordic Fund Selection Forum 2010. We have therefore decided to postpone the conference until October 7. More information will follow.

Nordic Fund Selection Forum - Program

The program for the Nordic Fund Selection Forum has been finalized and I think we have an excellent line-up of speakers this year. There are two distinct sections where we have presentations on developed markets in the morning and presentations on emerging markets in the afternoon. We also have two distinguished external key-note speakers covering trends in fund selection and Fredrik Skavlan will share his insights on interview techniques. You find the program here: Download NFSF_program2010