Citywire: The Selection Show

PODCAST: Citywire Selector spoke at length with the GMO founder and value stalwart about his current market thinking. ‘Value tends to prosper’. As far as mantras to live by, Jeremy Grantham is very committed to the idea that buying discounted stocks and making money as they prove the doubters wrong is a way to earn a living. In this extended interview, the GMO founder outlines why he believes the...

Alliance Bernstein’s Vinay Thapar talks about the incredible innovation of the medtech sector versus a slower advancement within the traditional pharmaceutical industry. In the fifth episode of its MedTech podcast, Citywire Selectors meets Vinay Thapar, fund manager at Alliance Bernstein. Thapar, who has been investing in the healthcare space for over two decades and oversees the AB International...

While stressing how digitalisation has been embedded within both the medtech and the general health care space over the last few years, Blum highlights his two strategies’ overarching themes, as well as the key differences between the Bellevue Medtech & Services fund and the Bellavue Digital Health fund he oversees. American medical devices and health care producer Abbott Laboratories is one o...

There were two reasons Amundi’s Vincent Mortier said parts of the private markets resembled Ponzi schemes. The first is the idea of leverage is often miscommunicated and the second is that value is hard to properly ascertain. That is the view of Cyril Demaria, independent consultant and private markets expert. In this special podcast, Demaria, who has more than 20 years industry experience and was...

During the third episode of its MedTech podcast, Citywire Selectors meets co-head of BMO GAM’s global equities team Jamie Jenkins. He talks about the challenges the MedTech sector has been facing over the last couple of years, and how those hurdles have added to long-term issues like diabetes and an ageing population. Jenkins shares details of his three-step approach which consists in avoiding com...

In the second episode of its MedTech podcast, Citywire Selectors meets Paul Loudon, investment manager at Walter Scott & Partners. Loudon, who oversees the BNY Mellon Long Term Global Equity fund, talks about his long-term, high conviction strategy and the best way to access medical technology products and companies with a long runway for growth. At the core of his approach is the aim to inves...

Kicking off the series is Zehrid Osmani, head of global long-term unconstrained at Martin Currie. With a fifth of his portfolio tilted towards healthcare, Osmani achieves structural growth by focusing on areas of attraction, without letting index exposure dictate his choices. Demographic changes, resource scarcity and an exponential growth of technology across all economy sectors, are the megatren...

If you’re making sustainability hires for marketing purposes, it will quickly become clear it’s not going to work or it won’t have a true impact on the business. When selecting funds, Anne Ackerman, former head of impact fund selection at Credit Suisse, always paid attention to interactions between portfolio managers and ESG analysts to make sure that their approach to sustainability was robust en...

Jeremie Banet once was a fund manager at Pimco. However, after a few years in finance, he decided that he needed to experience something more tangible. After setting up a French food truck company, which didn’t succeed, he tried to mix both worlds, returning to the US firm as lead portfolio manager of global inflation-linked bond funds. However, Banet again decided to leave asset management for go...

Brokers in Wall Street still tell stories about the time 'Queen of the Court' Regina Borromeo remained undefeated for years during her years in Manhattan. After all, to win various tennis and squash championships at university and share courts with some of the most renowned players in the world is something very few people get to do. Nevertheless, while she managed to handle both her sports and ed...

Sam Gratton spent a decade in the City working as a credit salesman selling bonds, credit derivatives and structured credit for companies such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Santander. However, he found himself one day in the need to escape the finance ‘vortex’ as he needed to do something more creative. He then studied film in London, but this eventually led him to establish his own company in Ma...

In the third episode of the Breaking & Entering new series, we deep dive into the world of classical music, and how an academic musician can easily move towards asset management. Chris Ford now manages the Sanlam AI Artificial Intelligence fund, but there was a time when his job was about deciphering eco-musicology and why French music is still very much a world of its own. A holder of bachelo...

In the second episode of the Breaking & Entering new series, we discover the story of Tom Hancock, who went from being a research scientist at IBM surrounded by punched cards and noisy computers, to work in asset management at GMO. Hancock studied computer science at Harvard University and wasn’t particularly interested in finance, until he decided to give it a go after a few experiences in th...

Even though many Article 8 funds under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation don’t have buzzwords like ‘ESG’ in the names, their inclusion sends a stronger signal to investors. Speaking to Citywire Selector Hortense Bioy, head of ESG research at Morningstar, said if a fund’s name doesn’t include ‘ESG’ or sustainability terms, these issues are unlikely to play a central role in the strategy...

Breaking & Entering is back, with ex figure skating athlete Alban Préaubert as the first guest in the second series of the podcast. In this episode, the Sycomore AM fund manager tells Daniel Ruiz about his switch from competing for France in World Championships and GPs all around the globe, to asset management. The Frenchman, who is now focused on overseeing several small and mid caps strategi...

In this episode of EM Insider, Raphael Kassin shares his thoughts on how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has hit specific markets and what investment decisions he has noticed both in the lead up and following the onset of the conflict. Also in this episode, Kassin tells Citywire Selector reporter, Krystle Higgins his own investment strategy in the hours and days after the war began. Kassin also sh...

While the traditional ‘gentleman’s club’ ethos may not be as visible as it once was, female fund managers still face daily obstacles not experienced by male peers. That’s according to Polar Capital’s Naomi Waistell, who spoke about her experience and ascent through the financial industry as part of a special podcast produced for International Women’s Day 2022. Waistell said daily sexism still exis...

The increasing importance of ESG and sustainability-focused roles is helping to boost the number of women working in finance. This is according to Susanne Bolin Gärtner, head of fund and manager selection at Danske Bank, who has noticed this significant shift in the last couple of years. Also in this podcast the fund buyer explains why she is sceptical about gender-focused funds and how remote wor...

Stewardship is a powerful tool for investors to nudge companies towards better diversity practices, even though asset managers are still relatively timid at filing resolutions addressing the topic. This is according to Deborah Gilshan, founder of the 100% Club, who talked about the highlights of the recently published FTSE Women Leaders, formerly known as Hampton-Alexander Review. Also in this pod...

It’s tempting to solve diversity issues through CEO compensation incentives, but investors need to understand the problem is more nuanced. This is according to Anna Snider, head of due diligence for the wealth management division of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who said there is not enough data to show this approach works. ‘It is also good to have economic incentives and disincentives. It is abo...

Which EM countries were the biggest winners and losers in 2021, and where should investors look to in 2022? Emerging market debt expert Raphael Kassin shares his thoughts on the year ahead, as well as what a Russian invasion of Ukraine would look like for the market.

There are a number of experienced female professionals in the fund industry, but many lack the confidence to speak up, which diminishes their chances of being seen. Speaking to Citywire Selector, Manuela Froehlich, co-founder of the Fondsfrauen network, said media training is key in promoting talented female voices in the industry and can help them deal with imposter syndrome. ‘If more female fund...

When analysing strategies, fund selectors often consider financial metrics and whether a fund lives up to its stated return profile or investment strategy. However, softer aspects, such as the diversity of the portfolio management team, are often overlooked even though they can lead to better decision making. In this episode of Citywire Selector’s podcast we talk to Nick Samuels, head of manager r...

The Covid-19 pandemic is often painted as solely a healthcare story but other areas stand to benefit and, by extension, investors may soon face an intriguing array of new thematic strategies to capitalise on the most prominent themes. That’s the view of Aanand Venkatramanan, head of ETF investment strategies and index funds at Legal & General Investment Management. In the final episode of this...

Investors want to go green more than ever before but concerns rage over how to accurately measure what they are doing and whether they are running very quickly in the wrong direction. So, what can they do about it? In this latest episode of Future Thinking, Tatjana Puhan, deputy chief investment officer of systematic boutique Tobam Asset Management, looks at the nuances around ‘raw’ data, the real...