Blair Jacobson

@Liz Perenick, Head of Portfolio Management for Private Placements, was excited to join a panel on key industry trends at this year's Private Placements Global Forum: Europe. The conference featured industry leaders covering a comprehensive agenda of today's major topics in private placements, including market updates, issuer perspectives, and much more. #insuranceassetmanagementstrategygroup #insuranceassetmanagement

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Culture is hard to measure but it is important when assessing a business or a fund management group. Poor culture often leads to failure. ACT helps provide a framework for fund selectors to compare.

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Great article - 100% agree with this. My question for the APAC market on the three trends highlighted in the article; Are APAC GPs willing to be more sophisticated with how they interact with the secondary markets and are they are willing to compromise on price when selling through secondary options? I think this is also a massive question facing other asset classes in APAC, Venture Capital for one - do funds also need to be more creative with exit opportunities as well given the usual methods are less tangible right now?

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#Hargreaves_Lansdown Hargreaves Lansdown backed the £5.4 billion bid for the FTSE 100 fund manager today from a private equity consortium, a deal that will end its time as a listed company. The Bristol-based finance firm has been listed in London since 2007. It said today that the final offer valued its shares at 1140p in cash and would include a 30p per share dividend for the financial year which ended on 30 June. Compared to the Hargreaves Lansdown share price before the approach was first made in April, the price is at a premium of over 54%. The consortium is made up of CVC, Nordic Capital and ADIA. Hargreaves Lansdown is named after its founders – Peter Hargreaves and Stephen Lansdown – who set it up as an investment tip sheet. It now runs a state-of-the-art trading platform from which clients can run their own portfolios and pensions. https://lnkd.in/dKpizupy

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Small caps are grabbing headlines, yet remain near a 20-year low vs large peers: https://lnkd.in/ewcrG4KU Watch our team's 5-minute take on whether the rotation can continue. This information is proprietary and cannot be reproduced or distributed. Certain information may be received from sources Voya Investment Management ("Voya IM") considers reliable; Voya IM does not represent that such information is accurate or complete. Certain statements contained herein may constitute "projections," "forecasts" and other "forward-looking statements" which do not reflect actual results are based primarily upon applying retroactively a hypothetical set of assumptions to certain historical financial data. Actual results, performance or events may different materially from those in such statements. Any opinions, projections, forecasts and forward-looking statements presented herein are valid only as of the date of this document and are subject to change. Nothing contained herein should be construed as (i) an offer to buy any security or (ii) a recommendation as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing or selling any security. Voya IM assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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Hello everyone. Hope your week has started well. I just wanted to highlight some excellent reporting from Jamie Colvin in Citywire - see article in first link below. Tom Poynton has also had the ingenious idea to create a "forum" to garner an understanding of retail investors' understanding of the many issues facing the investment companies sector (the link is in the article). Our campaign has often highlighted how new well-intended Consumer Duty regulations have turbo-charged the negative impact of IC "cost" disclosures. Recent attention has rightly been given to one aspect of this turbo-charging: retail platforms wrongly interpreting "value" and "cost" and not only misinforming consumers, but now banning them from investing in investment companies based on utterly floored logic. Do these platforms have the expertise to be making these judgements? Where they do not and they outsource, has there been proper due diligence on third parties used to make assessments of value? https://lnkd.in/eA4SHXjW We will not rest. Have a good week. Ben https://lnkd.in/eh9G9NWM

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In a recent Top of the Morning podcast, Paul H., Daniel Cassidy, and I discussed our recent report assessing the likelihood of a "Roaring '20s" scenario for the US economy. We touched on what the scenario looks like, the key drivers for it to happen, how policy is a wildcard that could make the scenario more or less likely, and general investment implications if it were to happen. Listen to the podcast for all the details. #shareubs https://lnkd.in/eTrGnzCv

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In the Strategy Snapshot this week, Daniel Cassidy and I review May market performance drivers. We then discuss what investors should be mindful of throughout the month of June, and into the summer. We also take the pulse of current investor consensus, and review our current allocation recommendations. Listen to the podcast for all the details. #shareubs https://lnkd.in/ektwe-6A  

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The Free Society, What Is Wrong With Kids Today, What We, their parents, Have Done Profoundly Wrong, and The Amnesia Cycle of History. "What is wrong with kids today, is that they have no clear idea with what an unfree society is, hence, "Queers for Palestine". It's a curious thing that people don't understand what it's like to live under Hamas. They don't really understand what the Iranian Revolution aspires to do. They don't understand what is like to live in Stalin's Soviet Union or in Mao's China. If they understood that, then they might be more reluctant to do the kind of things that many students attempted to do these days [...] It is amazing how totalitarian behaviours can creep into a free society. And I think that we've just failed to communicate on freedom as a phenomenon to this generation." Why now, we, we as parents, have "failed to communicate on freedom as a phenomenon", that is another, more paramount of an issue. And, it is NOT "amazing how totalitarian behaviours can creep into a free society", since our political leaders often nurture such behaviours, and since "they" made sure that we are stripped from critical thinking skills. | Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Nial Ferguson Konstantin Kisin #FreeSociety #Freedom #CriticalThinking https://lnkd.in/dMCrhwxk

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An interesting article in Citywire this morning by Henry Cobbe, CFA (see below). https://lnkd.in/einXyGNY It would be remiss of me not to make the following points: 1) Public markets 'discount' (take into account) known recurring expenses. Take two listed closed-ended investment companies ('investment trusts'): A and B. Both Boards employ investment advisers who invest the trust's capital in identical cash deposits bearing 0% interest. Let's assume a 5 year management contract. A's adviser charges 1%, B's 2%. Will the share prices be the same? Of course not. B's share price, all other things equal, will be c. 5% lower to account for higher fees over the life of the management contract. Investors invest in the share price NOT the NAV. Expenses are a drag on the NAV NOT the share price. It has to be so otherwise there would be a risk-free arbitrage to short B and long A. It is inappropriate to treat these expenses in the same way we do the ongoing charges of open-ended funds and aggregate them in total cost figures (whether that's a fund of funds or a wealth management portfolio). Platforms should also not disclosure the figure to retail investors in this misleading way. Look what happened when BH Macro upped fees by 1% - the shares fell by c. 10% to discount the increased drag on NAV. I went into more detail on these issues in the below blog, and show why it is appropriate to aggregate ongoing charges of open-ended funds, but not expenses of investment trusts: https://lnkd.in/eSiyEMn5 2) Mr Cobbe has deployed a straw man. I am not aware of anyone campaigning for no disclosure. First, there is and always has been, as much disclosure for investment trusts as there is for other listed corporate entities via UK Listing rules (the reports and accounts). Second, we have been campaigning for additional disclosure via our "Statement of Operating Expenses". This would surface operating expenses in an appropriate way, express them as a percentage of NAV (for use alongside other relevant information such as premium / discount) to enable cross-comparison with open-ended funds and other investment trusts. We recognise that investment trusts share characteristics with open-ended funds, and we need disclosures that recognise that. But some trusts resemble operating companies (and compete with them) more than collective investment schemes. Crucially, the listing on a public market is a key differentiating feature and matters hugely for how expenses are disclosed. Disclose. Don't Double Count.

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With the 2024 US presidential election on the horizon, the stakes are high for the tech sector and innovation-driven industries. Franklin Equity Group discusses how different election outcomes could shape America's tech leadership and innovation landscape. https://lnkd.in/gBPWe2qH.

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❗️Critical Compliance for Fund and Asset Manager Marketers: How do you stay compliant while implementing digital marketing and AI to elevate your fundraising? ➡️ Join us at the Revenue Revolution Symposium at the Questrom School of Business, Boston University to explore this and other critical business development issues in the digital age. 🎤 Featured Speaker: Derek Stern, Head of Global Distribution Compliance at Manulife Investment Management and John Hancock, and a panel of legal and compliance experts will provide crucial insights on navigating compliance in our online era: 1️⃣ Compliant Growth Strategies - Explore techniques to expand your digital presence and engage investors without crossing regulatory boundaries. 2️⃣ Surviving the New SEC Marketing Rule - Understand how to optimize your marketing strategies while complying with the latest regulations. 3️⃣ Thriving under multiple regulators - Learn how to grow your business while complying across multiple jurisdictions and regulations. 📍 Event Details: Join us on May 29, in Boston or online, for this groundbreaking symposium, sponsored by the Digital Business Institute BU. 📅 Act with Urgency: The regulatory landscape is swiftly evolving—stay ahead of the curve. Register now: https://lnkd.in/eYynjitW #DigitalMarketing #Compliance #AssetManagement #QuestromMeansBusiness #DigitalRevolution

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Thanks to Private Equity International and my fellow panelists (Vera Ningye; Steven Dunne; and Cornelius Mueller) for a important discussion today on Adapting to new technology and AI at the PEI CFO Funds Forum in London. #statestreet #statestreetalpha

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How to Effectively Engage with Family Offices https://lnkd.in/eZ6RNYKu #familyoffices #seedcapital #esg #investing #diversityandinclusion #hedgefunds #privateequity #emergingmanagers

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Looking forward to participating in this annual must-attend conference! I'll be talking about how we're using advanced technology to drive our operations. HFM Global #hedgefunds #ai #emergingmanagers #alternativeinvestments

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Small caps are grabbing headlines, yet remain near a 20-year low vs large peers: https://lnkd.in/e_Ph25dU Watch our team's 5-minute take on whether the rotation can continue. This information is proprietary and cannot be reproduced or distributed. Certain information may be received from sources Voya Investment Management ("Voya IM") considers reliable; Voya IM does not represent that such information is accurate or complete. Certain statements contained herein may constitute "projections," "forecasts" and other "forward-looking statements" which do not reflect actual results are based primarily upon applying retroactively a hypothetical set of assumptions to certain historical financial data. Actual results, performance or events may different materially from those in such statements. Any opinions, projections, forecasts and forward-looking statements presented herein are valid only as of the date of this document and are subject to change. Nothing contained herein should be construed as (i) an offer to buy any security or (ii) a recommendation as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing or selling any security. Voya IM assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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In the Strategy Snapshot this week, Daniel Cassidy and I consider whether the April FOMC meeting and employment report are early indications of a return of a Goldilocks environment after a few months of reflation being the main theme across financial markets. We also discuss positioning considerations for the current environment. Listen to the podcast for all the details. #shareubs https://lnkd.in/eKFCaKEb

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