06Jun

Despite market volatility and an uncertain economic outlook, investors are committed to their alternative asset programs, declares Preqin in its half year investment update.

The majority of investors in alternatives say they intend to stay the course this year, telling Preqin they are satisfied with the performance of their portfolio over the last year.

“Almost all investors intend to either maintain (60%) or increase (33%) allocations to private capital, highlighting their confidence in the market and knowledge that funds that have invested through downturns and recessions have historically provided the best returns,” says Preqin.

The only sector where investors were solidly disappointed is natural resources. There, 58% said performance had fallen short of their expectations.

Hedge fund investors were evenly split between those saying performance failed to meet their expectations and those who said the opposite. But when those who felt the asset class had exceeded expectations are included, hedge funds came out on the positive side.

Preqin conducted its survey of institutional investors in June, before hedge funds had a third consecutive positive month. July was another strong month for the asset class. Preqin’s All-Strategies Hedge Fund benchmark turned positive for 2020 and improved the annual return to 5.46%.

Yet, even before knowing this, 44% of hedge fund investors said they expected to invest more capital in the class in the next year. Among the six asset classes, only private debt had a higher percentage of investors (48%) expecting to increase their investment.

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Fewer, however, foresee much improvement in their portfolios over the next 12 months. Preqin says hedge fund investors are the most optimistic with only 2-in-5 survey respondents expecting improvement. Private debt investors were not far behind, with 34% saying they expected improvement.

“In absolute terms investors expect their private capital portfolios to perform worse over the next 12 months, a finding that is in line with the economic devastation arising from the pandemic,” Preqin says, adding, “any investment will be hard pressed to perform well.”

“On balance, investors expect COVID-19 to have a slightly negative effect on the performance of their alternatives portfolios in the long term.”

Still, as Preqin noted, 63% of investors do not plan to change their strategy because of COVID-19; 29% intend to invest more vs. 7% that will invest less.

“The economic fallout from COVID-19,” declare Preqin, “Has not diminished investors’ appetite for alternatives.”

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash

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Influencer is the Hottest New Marketing Career (Sample)

When the pandemic hit and Americans hunkered down, spending on essentials and entertainment, but on little else, brands naturally cut their marketing budgets.

One area that survived was social media influencers. After dipping slightly at the outset of the quarantine, social influencer spending quickly returned to pre-COVID levels. Meanwhile, other advertising, including digital, continued to decline so much that 7-in-10 CMOs have seen an average 19% cut in their marketing budgets.

From an almost accidental niche specialty, influencer marketing has become a big part of digital marketing. Spending on social influence was estimated to hit $9.7 billion this year.

Marketers report that for every $1 they spend on social influence they earn an average media value of $5.78. No surprise then that influencer jobs have become one of the hottest new marketing careers. By virtue of the relationship they’ve established with their audience, social media influencers can introduce their followers to a new brand, or boost an established brand’s sales simply by posting about them.

Until recently, influencers didn’t see what for many began as a hobby as a career. They wrote blogs, posted videos and images to YouTube and Instagram channels and otherwise produced content about what most interested them. As they gained followers, they gained influence and companies noticed.

Kylie Jenner, with 164 million Instagram followers, can drive huge sales for her cosmetics line and for other products she promotes. So effective is her influence that companies pay her hundreds of thousands, even up to a million to post about their products.

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Banking’s 2021 Outlook: Transformation and Resilience

When the pandemic forced the shutdown of businesses across much of the world, one of the sectors that adapted quickly was finance.

In a detailed forward-looking article, Deloitte applauded banking’s response calling it “notable… Banks effectively deployed technology and demonstrated unprecedented agility and resilience.” Looking ahead, the report says now is the time for the industry to institutionalize what it learned about engaging customers, digital transformation, finance and talent, among others.

While COVID impacted so many areas of the global economy and work, perhaps the most highly visible is in workforce management.

“Banking leaders around the world have faced an array of challenges on the talent front, from shifting to a remote, distributed workforce to finding ways to keep employees engaged and productivity high,” says the report written by two of Deloitte’s most senior leaders in its Banking & Capital Markets practice: Mark Shilling, a vice chairman, and Anna Celbner, vice chairman of Deloitte UK.

A majority of banks adopted flexible schedules and focused on employee safety and well-being. However, the economic fallout also led many to implement layoffs, furloughs and voluntary time off. Further “hard decisions on optimal talent models” may need to be made in 2021, the writers acknowledge.

But as uncertainties continue, “Bank leaders should continue to proactively recognize employee concerns, be sensitive to their personal/family needs, and prioritize physical and psychological health efforts that can also help maintain employee productivity.”

To improve retention and engage workers, especially the many that work, and may continue to work remotely, banks must “transform their talent strategies to enable employees to learn better, faster, and more frequently.”

Teaming needs to change to “facilitate flexible, self-organizing teams that come together for a common purpose,” the authors write. “Boosting productivity, creativity, and collaboration should be the ultimate goals.”

The lengthy report addresses multiple other areas of banking operations, suggesting how the industry can build on the lessons of the last year, as well as proposing ways to manage the uncertainties ahead. Resilience, a recurring theme throughout the article, is the overall message.

Acknowledging that, “Uncertainty about the effects of the pandemic will likely remain for the foreseeable future,” Shilling and Celbner, say “This should not prevent bank leaders from reimagining the future and making bold bets.

“They should institutionalize the lessons from the pandemic and build a new playbook by strengthening resilience now and accelerating the transformation in the post-pandemic world.”

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon

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