BlackRock CEO: European Equities Trump Debt

Laurence Fink, CEO of BlackRock, says that European equities and stocks that pay dividends are still a wise bet amid current tumultuous markets.

(September 14, 2011) — BlackRock’s CEO Laurence Fink is favoring equities over debt.

He said he anticipates a “major migration” out of bonds and into equities over the course of the next year. “I just think we’ve got to get out of this short-termism, and we’ve got to start focusing on what is best to protect…our return on our investments,” Fink said in an interview on CNBC.

Meanwhile, Fink said that it would be wise for investors to avoid low-yielding US debt and some European debt as the region faces its mounting debt crisis. “We are going to find a solution in Europe, and Germany will have to play a major role,” he said in New York at the Delivering Alpha conference sponsored by CNBC and Institutional Investor.

Fink’s comments echo earlier assertions made in a recent Fitch’s European senior fixed-income investor survey. According to the study, Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has remained a major worry for investors. The survey, conducted between March 31 and May 2, polled the views of managers of an estimated $4 trillion of fixed-income assets.

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The biggest concern for bond investors, the survey showed, was Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, with 64% of respondents, up from 56%, expecting developed market sovereigns to endure the biggest refinancing challenges.

The worries echo recent sentiments by Harvard professor of economics Gita Gopinath, who said during an investor forum that pensions — typically large bondholders — may be forced to take a loss on their investments as a result of the European sovereign debt crisis. At the Dublin-based forum — titled Adjusting to New Realities — among Europe’s largest institutional investors and asset managers responsible for the investment of more than €1 trillion of funds, 75% of those in attendance saw a high likelihood of default in the Eurozone within three years. Gopinath asserted that the solution would likely be for bondholders, namely pension funds, to take some form of a loss on their investments, “given the sheer scale of the debt amounts involved.”



To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742

IMF: Pensions May Flock to Emerging Markets

A new report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reveals that pension and insurance funds may up their allocation to equities and other riskier assets in emerging and developing countries.

(September 14, 2011) — A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) notes that pension and insurance funds may up their investments in equities along with other riskier assets in emerging and developing countries.

According to the group’s Global Financial Stability Report, historically low interest rates in industrialized markets are threatening pension plans in Canada, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Britain and the United States. Due to the low interest rate environment of those markets, pension and insurance vehicles are being left underfunded as a result of their reliance on traditionally safe investments, which are yielding little or nothing.

Consequently, the IMF reported noted opportunity in more aggressive, relatively riskier assets.

The report stated: “Investing in emerging markets is seen as potentially increasing portfolio returns without taking on excessive risk. A number of factors contribute to this view, including (i) underweighting of emerging markets in most portfolios (although exposure was already increasing before the crisis), so that emerging market assets can help diversify portfolios; (ii) low returns and increasing risk in advanced economies; (iii) a favorable view of the liquidity available in most large emerging markets; and (iv) an improvement in economic outcomes and a decline in policy risk in emerging markets.”

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In addition, the report concluded that new regulations designed to help lower exposure to high risk investments may actually be undermining global financial stability. “With many first-time investors taking advantage of the relatively better economic performance of these countries, the risk of a reversal cannot be discounted if fundamentals — such as growth prospects or country or global risk — change,” according to the report. “For larger shocks, the impact of such reversals could be of the same magnitude as the pullback in flows experienced during the financial crisis.”

The full report will be released September 21.



To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742

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