All Alternatives articles – Page 48
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The (new) working world: promoting workplace well-being
This is the third part of a four-part series on SDG 8 – decent work and economic growth. In our first two instalments, we demonstrated how we are engaging with companies on their hiring practices and efforts in the shift towards fairer pay outcomes. Today, we progress to the issue of employee benefits.
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Sustainable agriculture: the economics of healthy soil
Where is modern industrial agriculture taking us? How can farmers respond? And what does all this mean for the financial performance of companies operating in the food and agricultural sector?
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Demand grows for high-quality ESG analytics
After the buzz comes the reality. As we look towards 2020, the key responsible investment (RI) themes are already evident. Technology, regulatory changes, enhanced analytics, active use of voting rights and thematic issues (eg, climate change or the sustainable development goals) are key elements of this and are set to be the focus in the RI field.
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Adapting to a low-yield, high-regulation environment
Global insurance markets are a tale of two halves. The European and US markets are mature, with assets under management likely to remain flat for the foreseeable future. Asia is different: the market is boasting strong, sometimes double-digit growth. Insurance companies are injecting a lot of the expertise from their European or US businesses into growth areas, thus achieving higher valuation multiples, because a fast-growing business is more attractive from an M&A point of view.
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Fixed Expense Investing
Low and even negative yields have turned some fixed income investing into “fixed expense” investing—but there are still good reasons to hold negative-yielding bonds.
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December Macro Dashboard
The announced Phase One trade deal between the U.S. and China, as well as the Conservatives increasing their majority in the U.K. election, has tempered two of the biggest political risks hanging over the global economy. At least temporarily, sentiment is turning optimistic.
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Commitment on Climate
Our Sustainable Equity team explores a recent engagement on measurement of carbon emissions.
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Fixed Income: Back To Core - Charts And Views
The ongoing slowdown in global trade will weaken global GDP growth further in 2020 – especially in advanced economies skewed towards the manufacturing sector – but a full-blown recession is unlikely, in our view. This situation will encourage policymakers to finally add fiscal stimulus to the policy mix, possibly extending the economic and credit cycles. Monetary policy is unlikely to become much more accommodative and market expectations will have to adjust, likely driving bond volatility higher with a possible bottoming out of core bond yields.
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Global Emerging Markets: ESG Materiality, Q3 2019
Welcome to the Hermes Global Emerging Markets’ ESG Materiality commentary – a quarterly publication that demonstrates our engagement activity with portfolio companies and showcases holdings that are creating positive impact aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, we explore an environmental, social and governance theme and its implications for the asset class.
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2020: Risks, Opportunities & Predictions (Part 1/2)
In Part 1 of our 2-part series, Barings’ investment professionals touch on topics from politics to trade wars to economic growth—and offer their perspectives on why EM currencies, international equities and EM local debt might outperform in 2020.
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2020: An Inflection Point for EM Currencies?
With the financial crisis more than a decade behind us, the global financial system seems poised to begin re-leveraging. This process, which would likely take years to play out, would provide a source of funding for EM currencies, and represent a significant tailwind.
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The Continued Democratization of Private Equity
Private equity is an asset class that has traditionally been available only to very large, sophisticated institutional investors. But this is changing rapidly—a trend we expect to accelerate in 2020.
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How Crucial is a Weaker Dollar in Supporting an EM Rally?
As concerns of a near-term recession seem to have dissipated, we think—in what may be somewhat of a contrarian call—riskier assets look well-positioned to potentially outperform in the year ahead.
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Sustainable investing is here to stay
Sustainable investing was once viewed as a trade-off between value and ‘values’. Yet today, it’s something investors can no longer afford to ignore. What has changed? More granular data, more sophisticated analysis and shifting societal understanding of sustainability, as well as growing awareness that certain factors – often characterised as environmental, social and governance (ESG) – can be tied to a company’s long-term growth potential.
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2020 Investment Outlook - Be Agile To Cope With Diverging Scenarios
After enjoying stellar performance this year, moving into 2020, investors will increasingly ask whether the global economy will proceed towards a trade war-engineered recession or whether growth will stabilise at a low level and potentially rebound, meaning the cycle could extend even further. In our view, the retreat in global trade is causing a major change in the structure of growth, but does not point to a full-blown recession, especially at a time when cumulative loose policies are gearing up and a partial deal between the US and China is in sight. Monetary and fiscal policy combination, a prominent theme going forward, may extend the current cycle further. While the noise on trade-related issues will be high, a material escalation is unlikely given the upcoming US elections in 2020. However, the path for investors will not be linear. In the short term, market expectations for policy actions have gone too far and need to be adjusted.
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Initial Margin Landscape
Neil Murphy, business manager of triResolve, discusses what the regulatory initial margin landscape changes mean to the market and how in-scope firms for phase 5 and 6 may decide to take an alternative approach to IM compliance.
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The world’s renewable energy transition has begun
The world’s renewable energy transition has now begun and is only going to accelerate from here as governments, consumers and investors recognise that switching to more sustainable energy is not only essential to stop climate change, but makes sound economic sense too.
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Stewardship: the 2020 vision
We call for a seismic change in the way the investment management industry operates: from one that has for too long focused on short-term returns, at the expense of sustainable wealth creation. In our view, successful stewardship needs to be at the heart of business purpose and inextricably linked to investment decision-making. In order for this to happen, we need a “new normal” in the relationship between asset manager and the companies in which they invest.
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Total Portfolio Impact
The investment management industry is experiencing a fundamental change as two long-running trends converge: first, a belief that material environmental, social and governance (ESG) characteristics can be a driver of better long-term investment performance, and second, a demand from clients to understand the social and environmental impact of their portfolio alongside investment performance.
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How The Dollar Explains the State of the World
The global economy may be changing more slowly than you might think. How the dollar continues to serve as the global currency standard and what it tells is about the economy and the world.