Citywire: The Selection Show

‘Everything was going well until one day something happened’. The old foreign correspondent maxim has never been more relevant to the emerging market than it is today, according to EM debt expert Raphael Kassin. On the latest episode of EM Insider, Kassin talks through the breaking situation in Belarus, the varying levels of investor appetite across Latin America and lifts the lid on Lula’s surpri...

‘We were very disappointed’. Peter Habermacher was left scratching his head when it came to finding a properly clued-in fund manager to help him unlock the true potential of cryptocurrency. So, he decided to do it himself. In this latest episode of Citywire Selector’s ‘Future Thinking’, Habermacher, who co-founded Aaro Capital with Ankush Jain and Sébastien Jardon, explained how the marketplace ha...

‘2020 was the year that AI came of age in the wider world’. That is according to Nick Williams, analyst on the Polar Capital Automation and Artificial Intelligence fund. Speaking on the latest episode of Citywire Selector’s Future Thinking podcast, Williams discussed how the sector advanced over the past year and, crucially, what is likely to come next. In this discussion, Williams also touches up...

Citywire Selector’s Why Inclusion? series returns with a new episode tackling two inclusive topics at once: climate change and gender-lens investing. In this episode, investor and consultant Suzanne Biegel expounds on the reasons why climate change, which is a man-made problem, can be solved with gender-lens investing. According to Biegel, who founded gender-lens initiative GenderSmart, investors...

As asset managers are signing up to achieve net zero carbon emissions, they have to face up to the challenge of adequately measuring physical climate risks. Speaking hot-on-the-heels of the US climate summit, Wendy Cromwell, director of sustainable investments at Wellington Management, explained what she learned from the panel with special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry. Also in this p...

The media focus on Elon Musk has made space an attractive topic once again. Almost exactly 50 years after man first stepped on the Moon, there is no palpable interest in what riches could lie in Earth’s near orbit and, crucially, how we access them. In this episode of Future Thinking, Simon Drake, co-founder of Space Ventures Investors, charts a course for the future of investing in space. What wi...

The challenges faced by scandal-hit China Huarong Asset Management – Huarong – show that China is willing to let state-backed darlings fade in order to reflect a healthier view of their markets to the wider world. That is according to our EM Insider, Raphael Kassin. In this latest podcast, Kassin talks zombie companies in China’s fast-growing market and also reflects on a month which saw a positiv...

The Covid-19 pandemic was a mental health crisis of never-before-seen proportions and the implications for how companies both attract and nurture talent now hinge on how their cultural priorities. Marisa Hall, co-head of the Thinking Ahead Institute at Willis Towers Watson, joined the latest episode of Future Thinking to look at how the working world will evolve as offices and other working enviro...

Facebook, Google and Twitter have to put their violent and offensive content under control, otherwise they risk losing their users and advertisers. Speaking to Citywire Selector, Marte Borhaug, head of sustainable outcomes at Aviva Investors, explained why investor should pressure social media platforms on these sensitive issues. Also in this podcast, Borhaug explains the importance of the World B...

eSports has risen from nowhere to be a genuine counterpoint to the world of physical sports. Fuelled by hundreds of millions of participants matched with hundreds of millions prize money, as well as a whole host of adjacent industries, how long can this boom period last? In the latest edition of Future Thinking, Degroof Petercam fund manager Quirien Lemey, who co-runs the DPAM Invest B Equities Ne...

Millennials – or Generation Y, if you prefer – have never had so many bosses, more flexible hours or more of a focus on what a company can do for them, as much as what they think they can do for it. The rise of a more me-first mentality is likely to clash with older generations who valued an approach more focused on ‘sit down, shut up’ then self-starting, according to author and academic Adam King...

External networks for female financial professionals have a crucial role to play in the industry’s diversity push, especially for smaller asset managers that can’t afford a dedicated diversity unit. Mentorship and connection to industry peers with similar experiences are only two among many aspects highlighted by our podcast guests, Deborah Gilshan, the founder of 100% Club in the UK, Manuela Froe...

Now is not the time to have full exposure to the emerging world, but there are opportunities for those willing to buy at the bottom. That’s according to our EM Insider, Raphael Kassin. In the first podcast for 2021, the developing world debt specialists looks into the recent upheaval in Brazilian business caused by Jair Bolsonaro, as the president keeps one eye squarely on next year’s election. He...

Hedge funds offer a roadmap on how traditional asset management can move its star manager culture, while also highlighting how tools such as shorting can be increasingly useful when returns are harder to generate. That is according to Jack Inglis, chief executive officer of industry trade body and advocacy group Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA). In the first episode of this new...

Natural capital preservation is a new investment theme that institutional investors should invest more time and resources in today. That is according to Mirova’s chief executive officer, Philippe Zaouati, who joined the Natural Capital Investment Alliance during the One Planet Summit in January of this year. Also in this podcast, Zaouati explains his company's impact work with L’Oréal, the promise...

The bond market veteran talks openly about how he played the ‘short squeeze’, why he made a mistake by joining Janus Henderson from Pimco and also dismisses the notion that anybody will assume his crown as a ‘bond king’. In this exclusive interview with Citywire Selector, the former Pimco fund manager also talks about his charity work, his views on the ‘little devil’ Elon Musk and why he is buying...

While energy companies are the main targets for those focused on climate stewardship, the lines of engagement are gradually shifting. Speaking to Citywire Selector, Robert Walker, global co-head of asset stewardship at State Street Global Advisors, said the firm’s climate change interactions are now focusing more on financial institutions funding energy companies. Also in this podcast, Walker expl...

Chief economist Alberto Matellán, who serves at Spanish-based Mapfre Inversion, discusses the benefits of empowering disabled workforces. He delves into the investment philosophy of equity fund Inclusión Responsable, which he helped conceptualise in 2018 to invest in companies that create enabling environments for their disabled workforce. The candid conversation also tackles issues of data transp...

Covid-19 has exposed a lot of societal issues, be it job security or workplace safety, however the social aspect of ESG remains one of the least explored by investors today. Speaking to Citywire Selector, BNP Paribas Asset Management’s Jane Ambachtsheer, global head of sustainability, and Adam Kanzer, head of stewardship Americas, said lots of conversations the team had with firms in 2020 were abo...

‘They said we were absolutely crazy’. Fund selector Daniel Zachmann was not shocked by the response from his friends and family when he said he was going to co-found a company focused on gluten-free snacks. The former Citywire Selector cover star, who is now an investment director at digital loans firm HCG Funds, explains how his education in advertising and economics led him to venture into the h...

UN PRI has now been around for 14 years, but the organisation needs to move with the times as the demands of investors in the ESG space are increasing. In this episode of Let’s Talk About ESG, Tycho Sneyers, managing partner at LGT Capital Partners and a UN PRI board member, explains how the organisation is planning to expand its minimum requirements. He also explains what investors can do to be c...

Restructuring, a pandemic and political headwinds have all weighed heavily on the emerging world in 2020, but where should debt investors be looking to uncover opportunities for the year ahead? In the final episode of EM Insider for this year, Raphael Kassin talks us through what challenges we have faced, how the market has performed and where he has been putting his own money to best use. And, as...

Many investment boutiques were launched over the past months, but seldom by women. Citywire A-rated Jane Andrews, who founded boutique BambuBlack in 2019 after twenty years at Smith & Williamson, is an exception to the rule. In this new episode of Why Inclusion?, Andrews outlines what drove her to launch her own venture. From lazy balance sheets to restructuring, Andrews also discusses the imp...

Executive compensation is among the burning issues that ESG investors just can’t afford to ignore. That’s according to Neuberger Berman’s head of ESG, Jonathan Bailey, who said some pay packages are simply out of touch with reality, giving an example of a US rail company that the asset manager engaged with on the issue. Also in this episode, Bailey names companies that do better and worse at repor...

In this new episode of Breaking & Entering, portfolio manager Jeff Mueller delves into the epiphany that made him turn to investments after spending a decade in the United States Marine Corps. Mueller shares the transferable skills he still benefits from in his current role at Polen Capital and he points at current outstanding opportunities in the equity market. The investor also debunks Holly...