Actively
managed global equity strategies will continue to be important to institutional
investors to generate returns for their portfolios, according to a research
report from OFI Global Asset Management, an OppenheimerFunds company, and
Greenwich Associates.
The joint
research study is based on interviews with 157 senior investment professionals
from a mix of corporate pensions, public pensions, endowments, foundations and
defined contribution plans with at least $250 million of assets from the United
States, United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Investors in the
U.S. plan to keep their allocations to global equities constant at 20%.
Fifty-five
percent of U.S. investors have their global equity allocation in active,
alpha-seeking strategies. The planned allocation to these strategies in three
years is 61%.
The study shows
a growing willingness among investors to move beyond benchmark constraints to
provide active managers the freedom to exercise their stock-picking expertise
and better reach the level of returns these investors need from their risk
allocations. These investors are also increasingly willing to sacrifice
diversification to focus on a select number of companies that managers believe
have the greatest potential to deliver returns (29% in the U.S.).
“Despite a
growing emphasis on de-risking among large institutional asset owners, the need
to generate returns and meet future funding targets remains paramount across
all three of the regions we surveyed,” says John McDonough, head of distribution
and marketing at OppenheimerFunds.
Confidence in
active managers is high across all regions, with a total of 80% of investment
professionals either planning to make no change (64%) or increase (16%) the
degree to which they use active managers three years from now.
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