Investment Acumen |
 View our latest Investment Acumen (PDF) 3016Kb (full version) (Summer 2010)
In this Summer issue of Investment Acumen, we have performed a balancing act, looking at both some of the key characteristics of the post-crisis environment as well as several more fundamental trends.
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The ultimate purpose of asset managers, because we are an industry which manages stocks, not flows, and therefore looks to create long term value, is to adapt to these trends and make sure that what we offer our investors is both in synch with this reality and adapted to their reality - and therefore expectations, whether markets are going through boom or bust.
Editorial (PDF) 29Kb by Dominique Carrel-Billiard, CEO of AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) |
The financial crisis and resulting recession triggered an unprecedented policy response of central banks from around the world. The reduction in interest rates to close to zero for a prolonged period of time, asset purchases by central banks, and the provision of wide ranging liquidity were all factors that affected investor returns.
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Looking into 2010 we feel that it is going to be more of an Alpha market than a Beta one and as such, we will be looking for stocks to deliver 10-15% rather than 50-60%.
With the recession of the western world barely behind it, and tenant demand still falling - in most markets at least -, investor interest in commercial real estate is starting to recover.
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The use of flexibility can deliver higher alpha – in particular at the top and bottom of the economic cycle – and that flexibility, diversification and risk are all part of the same equation.
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Despite of the recent economic turmoil, AXA IM demonstrates how European Loan and Reinsurance products could represent alternative investment in a lingering market.
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Many long-standing emerging markets become more similar to traditional developed markets, new emerging markets are coming to the fore.
In the past two decades, a multitude of anomalies in the valuation of assets have shown that the financial market is not always efficient and that homo-economicus is subject to emotional and cognitive biases.
Any decline in the world's biodiversity or degradation of our ecosystems is a major threat to all those industries whose activities depend on accessing natural capital and ecosystemic services.
The recent crisis highlighted more than ever the need for a deep overhaul of the supervisory framework within which the European Insurance industry operates.
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