Emerging Manager Monthly

News

Maryland Recognized For Terra Maria Fund

The Maryland State Retirement & Pension System was honored with the 2009 Pacesetter Award for its “vigorous support and promotion of minorities and women in the securities industry” by the National Association of Securities Professionals last month.
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CalPERS MDP Senior Portfolio Manager Retires After 20+ Years

Mary Cottrill, senior portfolio manager for global equities at the California Public Employees Retirement System, has retired.
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Manager Turnover May Reach ‘Historic Highs’: Greenwich

Investment manager turnover could reach historic highs over the next year if institutions follow through on their plans for managing hiring and firing, according to a report from Greenwich Associates.
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InFocus

Segall, Bryant & Hamill Capitalizes On 2009 Opportunities

Segall, Bryant & Hamill Investment Counsel may not be an emerging manager, however the firm has been able to raise approximately $800 million in new assets in 2009 alone, which in the current market, is quite an accomplishment.
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Due Diligence Key Ingredient To Success For Plante Moran

When your parent company is an auditing firm, it is understandable why manager due diligence takes precedence. At Plante Moran Financial Advisors, those managers interested in working with the firm have taken notice.
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Marketing

Channing Boasts Impressive 3-Year Returns For Small-Cap Value

Channing Capital Management reached its three-year track record on its smallcap value portfolio at the end of June and is boasting a return since inception over 25% better than the index.
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SDI Offers Int’l, ESG Portfolios

Strategic Development Investments has begun to market its international equity and socially responsible products to institutional investors.
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Launches

Creststreet Asset Management Launches Alternative Energy Fund

Creststreet Asset Management, a Toronto-based asset manager, has launched an off-shore alternative energy fund and is currently marketing the fund to institutional investors, including fund-of-funds, in an effort to raise $100 million.
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Woman-Owned RE Firm Opens

Tanya Little and Angel Benschneider have launched a real estate company specializing in commercial property, asset management and business advisory services.
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Searches

NY State Insurance Fund Seeking Emerging MoMs

The $12.1 billion New York State Insurance Fund is searching for an emerging manager-of-managers to handle an expected $150 million portfolio.
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Allegheny Seeking EM Consultant

The $600 million Retirement Board of Allegheny County (Pa.) is searching for an emerging managers consultant. According to the RFP, the plan is seeking a consultant to assist with manager searches for emerging managers and women- and minority-owned asset managers and also advise the board on the performance of the program.
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Alternatives

Quotient Launches Market-Neutral Strategy, Seeking Seed Capital

Quotient Investors is looking for seed capital for a newlylaunched market-neutral equity strategy and hopes the current market environment will revive institutional interest in the space.

The portfolio is based on a similar strategy managed by Andre Bertolotti, cio and director of investment strategy and research at Quotient, for nearly 14 years, so while the Quotient strategy is new, the firm has experience in the space, said Julia Peter-Kerr, director of client service and sales at the firm.

The firm has also released a white paper entitled, “Back to Basics with Equity Market Neutral,” that is available on the firm’s Web site (http://www.quotientinvestors.com).

“The point for us to put out that white paper was to say, look guys, 2008 was a real stress test in the marketplace,” Bertolotti said, explaining that equity market-neutral came out of the period relatively strong, providing much-needed liquidity to plans.

Peter-Kerr said the low correlation market-neutral strategies have to other strategies in the portfolio, as well as risk-controlled returns, transparency and liquidity should garner the interest of institutional investors. “We think that pension plans in particular should have a lot of confidence going back to basics with equity market-neutral,” she said. The firm’s strategy includes a portfolio of about 50-75 positions short and 50-75 positions long that reflect the firm’s best ideas. “It is a little bit of a focused portfolio,” Bertolotti said.

He said the firm looks at a range of about 40 fundamental factors, including earnings, cash flow, growth trends and growth in earnings. “What is different about us is that we have identified which of these 40 factors are most meaningful in each industry,” he said, which allows the firm to have more robust individual industry evaluations.

Bertolotti said the current environment is particularly attractive for market-neutral managers. “Coming out of a recession is a time when you see the better companies differentiating themselves from bad companies,” he said. “It is an environment where companies can differentiate themselves.”
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UK Commodities Firm Opens US Office As Interest Increases

Ebullio Capital Management, a U.K.-based commodities manager, has opened an office in Denver to service new and existing U.S. clients.
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Little Black Book

Boeing CIO Departs

Mark Schmid, cio of The Boeing Company, has left to join the University of Chicago as its new v.p. and cio, the university announced.
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Nee Joins Wilshire Private Markets

Kevin Nee has been named president of Wilshire Private Markets, a unit of Wilshire Associates, the firm announced.
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Industry News

Watson Wyatt, Towers Perrin Merging

Watson Wyatt Worldwide and Towers, Perrin, Forster & Crosby have agreed to a merger that will “change the landscape of our industry,” the consulting firms announced this week.
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Russell Launches Multi-Manager Frontier Markets Fund

Russell Investments has launched a frontier markets equity fund for qualified employee benefit plans and government plans, the firm announced.
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Expert Advice

StreetSavvy Marketer

As someone who is still relatively new to leveraging the potential of Twitter, I’d be remiss if I held myself out as an expert on this particular social media strategy. What I can tell you, though, is that success here has less to do with amassing large numbers of “followers” at any one time than it does with the quality of your followers.
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StreetSavvy Marketer

I’m not an early adopter. I only got an iTouch last year because it was a gift and my kids thought I’d want one. Until recently, I took great pride in the fact that I had never used an ATM machine. Remember 8-track stereos? Guess who was the first on his block to buy a 4-track player.
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Conference Coverage

Conference Coverage: FRA Emerging Managers 2009

Financial Research Associates held Emerging Manager 2009 at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami, Fla. from April 26-28. The conference, held alongside the Stars & Stripes Conference, touched on a variety of subjects pertaining to emerging managers.
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Conference Attendees See Opportunity Amidst Market Turmoil

Opportunity and change were the themes of The 2008 Pension Bridge Alternatives Conference held last month in Pasadena, Calif.
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What's In A Name?

What’s In A Name?

It probably wouldn’t surprise many Americans if the London-based Bedlam Asset Management ’s name came from the word’s literal definition, especially when thinking back to all those videos of soccer hooligans taking over the streets.
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What’s In A Name?

Aether Investment Partners.

Aether is the fifth Greek element, representing the material the heavens were made out of. Sean Goodrich, co-founder, said he came across the name while searching the internet.
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Through My Eyes

The Case For Trend Following

There was a time when investors could place their faith in the fact that stocks generally tended to rise. To capture the returns available in the stock market, one could simply buy and hold a mutual fund or index fund to realize the goal of long term capital appreciation. The approach worked for so long that pension funds, endowments and millions of Americans are still holding on, even as gains from the previous twelve years evaporate in a relative instant.
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Standing Out: An Emerging Manager’s Quest To Be Noticed

In an ocean of domestic large-cap growth managers, what catapults an emerging manager into the institutional market? The principle of the Four P’s for money managers asserts that success lies within your people, philosophy, process, and performance.
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Letter To The Editor

DeMarche Associates Senior DeMarche Associates Senior

Steve Ferrell, senior consultant at DeMarche Associates, left the firm at the end of 2008, confirmed Loy Flannigan, human resources manager at the firm. Further information on Ferrell’s departure was not available as CEO Robert Marchesi did not return a call seeking comment.
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