At our London roundtable we discussed where opportunities may be presented looking forward over the next two years. Here is what four panellists had to say.
Nigel Smith, managing director, UK client group, Ninety One – At Ninety One, we consider ourselves to be particularly relevant in four main areas: emerging markets, China, sustainability and as providers of what we call ‘resilient investment outcomes’. All highly relevant right now.
Overall, we passionately believe that active investing can be a force for good. So, we’re excited to make an increasingly important contribution to helping move the industry forward, to creating a more sustainable future for everyone – in every sense investing for a world of change!
Pascal Duval, head of retail solutions, Amundi – The biggest opportunity we see is Asia, for all the reasons we know – the fast growth, the demographics, the innovation. The Chinese authorities are really welcoming and are opening, which shows a change in their behaviour. This is a great opportunity for us, because they want to get more mature about financial assets and savings and the structure of their own financial markets, obviously very worried about their domestic debt and the zombie debt which is there.
Beyond just China, the region in itself is fascinating, and this is the biggest opportunity for our business.
Julian Ide, head of Emea distribution, Franklin Templeton – There is opportunity in Asia, but there’s opportunity everywhere for this industry. As we said at the beginning, savings levels are necessarily going up, and even these sorts of crises increase that. There are opportunities in asset classes, in alts for example, ESG, and diversity within our businesses. People often talk in very negative terms about our industry, particularly the active industry, but that isn’t supported by what we see on the ground. The future is very exciting for asset management.
Eugenio Cicconetti, head of global financial client group, Schroders – We are expecting markets to remain volatile, so portfolios should be well diversified in our view. Insurance-linked securities represent an interesting opportunity in the current context and something clients are happy to look at for their portfolio. There is an interesting income component, they offer low correlation with traditional asset classes and have a compelling valuation angle.
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