Commodities - Are they fit for Pension Funds? – mallowstreet

Sponsored by

Man GLG

Man Investments is a provider of a range of investment strategies which have relevance to Pension Schemes. There are 4 business units at Man under the following headings:

1. AHL - AHL is our Managed Futures Platform. Managed Futures are a way of gaining access to a range of asset classes in a derivative format. For example commodities, currencies, equities and bonds. The methodology to manage these asset classes is to spot trends in the price information, and then follow them. This strategy tends to do well when markets are trending either up or down. This strategy is popular amongst those that want to diversify their growth assets and add in a portfolio that has tail protection characteristics as it can do well in downward trending markets.

2. GLG - GLG has a broad suite of hedge fund and long only strategies across various countries and sectors. Our strategies range from equity long short to European distressed debt, credit and sustainability strategies.

3. FRM Multi-Manager - FRM has significant resources to research other investment managers' hedge fund strategies. We have built up our own funds using external fund managers based on our indepth due dilligence undertaken by our research team. The FRM team also have one of the most successful and progressive Managed Account Platforms which gives investors transparency on their underlying hedge fund holdings. The Managed Account platform also allows us to help pension schemes tailor their hedge fund portfolios to best match their investment requirements.

4. Man Systematic Strategies - This team uses systematic/quantitative techniques across a range of strategies. For example, this team have developed a TailProtect strategy that looks to protect against extreme negative events across financial markets. They also have an equity and commodity strategy.

Man also has approximately 20% stake in a firm called Nephila. Nephila specialises in the insurance linked securities market. They focus on Catastophe risk insurance, this gives a very different return stream to typical financial assets, and therefore has excellent diversification characteristics for Pension Schemes.

Our aim is to offer a wide range of investment solutions that either have characteristics that can help to enhance a pension schemes growth assets or help diversify their risk exposures.

Commodities - Are they fit for Pension Funds?

Man GLG, in collaboration with mallowstreet, is pleased to be holding its fourth Riverbank Dinner in 2012 with two excellent speakers: Sandy Rattray, Chief Investment Officer of Man Systematic Strategies (MSS), and Scott Kerson, MSS Head of Commodities and portfolio manager for the Man Systematic Commodities strategy, will discuss the role commodities can play in a pension fund portfolio, and tackle the following points:

What are 'hard assets'? Things that hurt if they fall on my toe!

Why should investors care about commodities? Potential real returns and portfolio effects.

How should investors access commodity returns? Deliverability and storage, liquidity and transparency, and the role of active management.

This is a FREE event for Pensions Secretaries, Pensions Managers, Trustees, Pensions Chairs, Independent Trustees and Advisors. Please note that spaces are limited and available on first come first serve basis. To avoid disappointment please register for this event below.

Speakers

Our speakers for the evening Sandy Rattray and Scott Kerson will aim to help you make better informed decisions on this key topic that is poignant to the pensions community:

Click on their photo to find out more about them:

Sandy Rattray
Sandy Rattray is head of Man Systematic Strategies. He joined GLG in May 2007 after 14 years at Goldman Sachs, and joined Man through the merger in 2010. He graduated as a Scholar from Jesus College Cambridge with a Double 1st in Natural Sciences and Economics. As well as heading the Man Systematic Strategies group, he is a Portfolio Manager with responsibility for the Esprit funds. He has built systematic strategies in equities, credit, volatility and commodities during his career. At Goldman Sachs he was a Managing Director, was head of Equity Derivatives Strategies and was a co-inventor of the VIX index. From 2004 he was the Managing Director in charge of their Fundamental Strategy group, which focussed on finding proprietary trading opportunities for the firm across equities, credit, options and commodities.
Scott Kerson
Scott Kerson is Head of Commodities for Man Systematic Strategies, based in London.
Prior to joining Man, he ran a boutique consultancy focused on the quantitative analysis of global commodity markets and systematic trading strategies. Before launching his own business, Scott spent 15 years in commodities sales and trading. This included primary responsibility for Barclays Global Investors’ active commodities model; proprietary trader and senior quantitative analyst at commodity-specialist hedge funds (Ospraie and Amaranth), and Managing Director and Head of Commodities Sales & Structuring for Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. Scott received his Masters in Financial Economics, concentrating in econometrics and macroeconomics, from Duke University, USA.

Program

6:30 PM Welcome Drinks overlooking the Thames
7:00 PM Three Course Dinner followed by Presentation
9:00 PM Close and Networking

Commodities - Are they fit for Pension Funds?

Speakers

Program

6:30 PM Welcome Drinks overlooking the Thames

7:00 PM Three Course Dinner followed by Presentation

9:00 PM Close and Networking