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Conference Day One - Tuesday 2 December 2008
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8am | Registration and refreshments
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8.50am | Chairman’s opening remarks
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| HEDGE FUNDS STATE OF PLAY |
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9am | The year that was: review of 2008 and a preview of 2009
- Opportunities and challenges in 2008
- The current state of the industry: absolute and relative positioning
- View from here: macro themes into 2009 and beyond
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9.30am | The true test of hedge fund abilities: separating alpha from beta
- Identifying hedge fund strategies that produced alpha through handling volatility
- Wealth protection: have hedge funds protected investor capital effectively?
- What is the future outlook for volatility trading?
- Limitations to operating in all market cycles
- Industry, region, asset class: where should the big bets on recession be?
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10am | Flash from the past: how do managers handle crisis?
- Sheep effect: examining manager behaviour during the credit crisis
- Uncovering cracks prior to the crisis and how they were sealed
- Previous crises to 2007: was it just a repeat in action or were the problems new?
- How expert managers profit from other managers’ madness
- Assessing previous crises: LTCM in 1998, September 11th, technology bubble
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| | Mr. Kit Juckes, Global Head of Research & Strategy, Royal Bank of Scotland
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10.30am | Frontier markets through the financial fiasco:
Exploring the de-correlation of Central Asia’s hedge fund industry to wider global events
- An understanding of Central Asia’s economy and the market structure
- Examining the economic development of individual countries
- Analysing why Central Asia’s stock exchanges are undervalued
- A focus on the untapped opportunities in Central Asia’s real estate sector
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11am | Morning refreshments and networking
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| ALIGNING INVESTOR NEEDS WITH MANAGER STRATEGIES |
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11.20am | GUEST ADDRESS: World Economic Forum’s 'Global Leader for Tomorrow' - Liquidity and leverage lessons learnt from the credit crunch
- Leverage and hedge fund lending – temporary setback or turning point?
- What are the implications of lower leverage for investors?
- Global credit creation: culprit or saviour?
- Are there parallels with the post-bubble Japanese economy? What lessons can be learnt?
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| | Professor Richard Werner, Professor of International Banking, University of Southampton, Chief Investment Advisor, Profit Group
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11.55am | Panel debate: tackling the difficult questions – are hedge funds doing enough to meet investor requirements?
- Investor risk profiles: are the managers really in tune?
- Lock-ups: are investors comfortable with lengthening lock-up periods?
- Do managers truly justify their fees?
- Are managers doing enough to convince investors of their risk management strategies or are investors not asking enough upfront?
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12.30pm | End-user debate: overcoming investor fears to developing a profitable hedge fund portfolio
- What pre credit crunch fears do investors still hold for hedge funds and why?
- What fundamental requirements are necessary for effective communication to be possible between manager and client?
- Highlighting the changes the panel made to their hedge fund selections since the credit crunch
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1.05pm | Networking lunch
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| TRANSPARENCY, RISK MANAGEMENT & DUE DILIGENCE |
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2.10pm | Designing world class due diligence processes and the role of the consultant
- Formulating an effective due diligence plan: draft, construction and implementation
- Identifying the key sources of information to understand manager behaviour
- Developing effective legal due diligence and negotiating inclusions in the contract
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2.40pm | Manager-investor panel debate: developing robust risk management systems
- Understanding the risk management processes hedge funds use and their robustness
- Uncovering the unique criteria for hedge fund risk management
- Future developments in risk management: showcasing recent research
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| | Moderator: Juan Martini, Institutional Sales Manager, Eurex Zurich AG
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3.20pm | Investor protection: are the regulators doing enough?
- Balancing the needs for investor protection with an environment that stimulates product innovation and risk taking
- Do regulators truly understand the way hedge funds operate?
- Understanding the process for new regulation – is it effective?
- Considering the past: how has past regulation worked in harmony with the industry?
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| | Patrice Berge-Vincent, Direction de la régulation et des affaires internationales, Autorité des marchés financiers
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3.50pm | Speed networking
 The revolutionary, exciting, quick and non-pressurized way to meet fellow conference delegates and industry peers in a forty-minute session. These brief meetings are the starting point for conversation and networking throughout the conference. This is where long lasting and fruitful relationships begin.
- The best 50 minute networking session you’ve ever experienced
- Meet … move on … meet … move on … meet!
- Exchange business cards with fellow delegates, speakers and moderators
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4.30pm | Afternoon refreshments and networking
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| THE FUTURE FOR ALTERNATIVE INVESTING |
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4.50pm | Private wealth perspective: opportunities for family offices and high net worth individuals
- Changing view of private wealth from recent events
- Fund selection: developing a private portfolio
- Multi-strategy or multi-fund?
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5.20pm | Investor insight: the future for alternative investment strategies
- Investment opportunities in a volatile world
- Themes and trends in hedge fund investing
- The case for quantitative investing
- Understanding investor risk appetite
- Fund-of-funds: competition from multi-strategy and hedge fund replication
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5.50pm | Chairman’s closing remarks and end of day one
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5.55pm | Drinks reception and networking
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Conference Day Two - Wednesday 3 December 2008
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8am | Registration and refreshments
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9am | Chairman’s opening remarks
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| COPING IN A CRISIS |
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9.05am | The Crisis Was Not a Black Swan
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| | Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Author ‘The Black Swan’ and Senior Scientific Advisor, Universa Investments, Universa Investments L.P.
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9.40am | Panel debate: what has been learnt about crisis trading and coping in down turning markets?
- The blame game: is it possible to determine who could have caused or exacerbated the credit crisis?
- Investing with hindsight: are investors safer now they have hindsight knowledge to rely on?
- What progress has been made in understanding crisis trading?
- Investment tool selection: what investment tools did and should investors move to when markets get rough?
- What to watch to stay "ahead of the crisis curve"
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| | Mr Simon Davies, Director, Restructuring & Distressed Group, Blackstone Group Mr. Sassan Zaker, Investment Manager for Alternative Assets, Julius Baer Pension Fund Mr. Klaus Wiener, Head of Research and Tactical Asset Allocation, Generali Insurance
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10.25am | Morning refreshments and networking
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| INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES & TRENDS |
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10.55am | The emergence of event driven strategies: where hedge funds meet private equity
- An assessment of the marriage of private equity and hedge funds
- Implications and opportunities for investors
- The outlook for event driven strategies
- Highlighting the pitfalls in the current environment
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| | Mr Simon Davies, Director, Restructuring & Distressed Group, Blackstone Group
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11.25am | Sustainable out performance with TAA? A look at the empirical evidence
- The wisdom of crowds
- Reading the tea leaves vs. perfect foresight
- Key levels of success rates
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| | Mr. Klaus Wiener, Head of Research and Tactical Asset Allocation, Generali Insurance
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11.55am | Case study: an analysis of PGGM’s approach to the selection and integration of synthetic hedge funds
- The role of non-traditional beta’s in PGGM’s investment solution
- What is PGGM looking for in synthetic hedge funds?
- The road ahead for PGGM in SHF’s
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12.25pm | Networking Lunch
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1.35pm | Reading the market trends to uncover the opportunities
- Do hedge funds justify ‘alpha’, or is hedge fund marketing becoming see through
- Scrutinising market trends to uncover opportunities in absolute return
- Analysing if fund-of-funds are earning their fees
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2.05pm | Panel debate: the evolution of emerging markets and commodity portfolios
- Is now the time to allocate to frontier markets?
- Middle East beyond the oil: is the GCC a hot bed of opportunities?
- Understanding China and India’s obsession with Africa: should the West be investing?
- Soft commodities: wheat, water and timber potential
- Emerging markets and commodities boom: truth or fiction?
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2.45pm | Afternoon refreshments and networking
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| SEEDING STAR MANAGERS |
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3.15pm | Insurance linked securities as an asset class
- What solution and opportunities does Solvency II create?
- What role can insurance linked securities play in a portfolio?
- ILS as a diversification tool to other asset classes?
- A consideration of how Solvency II deals with longevity risk
- Understanding the market potential with a year to introduction
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3.45pm | Following star managers on their new ventures: what are the explicit opportunities?
- Forecast of star manager emerging opportunities
- Identifying the next big hedge fund star
- Examining the track record of star managers in their own venture
- Risk control: do star managers truly take care of the risk control?
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| | Mr. Sassan Zaker, Investment Manager for Alternative Assets, Julius Baer Pension Fund
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4.15pm | Chairman’s closing remarks
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4.20pm | End of conference
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Global Investment Outlook Briefing Day - Monday 1 December 2008
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8.15am | Registration and refreshments
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8.55am | Chairman’s opening remarks
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| GLOBAL FINANCIAL MARKETS – IN FOCUS |
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9am | Markets in turmoil - addressing the economic outlook
- Understanding the current economic cycle
- Assessing the long term implications of a period of devalued markets
- “Shadow banking system”: analysing inter-banking relationships
- Emerging market-Western market dynamics
- Outlook for market valuations in 2009
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| | Gilles Moec, Senior European Economist, Bank of America
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9.40am | The state of play in the global banking system
- Challenges of the modern day banking system
- The influence of central banks
- Restoring confidence in the system
- The outlook for investment banking
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10.20am | Panel debate: financial stability, leverage and systemic risk
- The challenge for central banks
- Leverage post the credit crisis
- Handling and modeling systemic risk
- The influence of sovereign wealth funds on financial stability
- Monetary policy in an era of commodity and emerging market boom
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| | Thomas Dienet, Member of the Executive Committee, Hedge Fund Standards Board
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11am | Morning refreshments and networking
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| GLOBAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES |
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11.30am | 2009 and beyond: best strategies/best opportunities
- Global equities and bonds: what’s the outlook?
- Opportunities in devalued economies
- Estimating the length of the commodities run, will a downturn have an impact?
- Implications for the dollar of losing reserve fund status
- Investment strategy outlook for 2009
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12pm | Commodities and emerging markets: boom or bust?
- Emerging markets: drivers of the world’s economy?
- Economic de-coupling: fact or fiction?
- Emerging currencies and the future outlook
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12.30pm | Convergence of hedge funds and private equity in macro allocation plans
- The implications of private equity and hedge funds joining forces
- Focus on event driven strategies
- Can traditional and alternative be a happy marriage: risks and returns
- The future outlook for long/short strategies
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| | Isabel Serra, Founding Partner, Cygnus Asset Management SGIIC S.A.
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1pm | Networking lunch
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| INVESTOR (OVER) PROTECTION? |
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2.10pm | Panel session: internal or external regulation?
- Regulatory protection or over-protection?
- Influence of investors for change
- Regulators view of manager behavior
- Communication with market players
- Outlook for future regulation
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| | Mr. Hubert Reynier, Managing Director, Regulation Policy & International Affairs Division, Autorité des marchés financiers
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| BEST PRACTICE INVESTING |
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2.55pm | Global macro of a star manager: seeking the best investments
- Where to next for interest rates?
- Exploiting the economic cycle for successful investment.
- Searching for alpha in a volatile environment
- Investment winners and losers in 2009
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| | Mr. Steven Bell, Director and Portfolio Manager of the Global Macro Programme, GLC
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3.25pm | Afternoon refreshments and networking
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3.55pm | Case study: investing like Harvard and Yale
- Overview of the most successful US endowment funds
- Explaining the risk / return features and understanding the methodology used
- Opportunities and limitations of replicating this investment approach
- Where next? What investors can learn from recent allocation changes of these funds
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4.25pm | Panel debate: star managers and top investors - the future of allocations
- Portfolio construction in light of the credit crunch
- Capturing alpha: forecasting market returns?
- The strategic approach in volatile times
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| | Mr. Steven Bell, Director and Portfolio Manager of the Global Macro Programme, GLC
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5.05pm | End of day
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Post Event Workshop - Thursday 4 December 2008
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| DISTRESSED DEBT AND SPECIAL SITUATIONS INVESTING |
Rationale and benefits
With global markets taking a dive in 2007 and early 2008, the take-up in distressed debt has become one of the most hotly discussed subjects for investors. This workshop is set to uncover how investors can take advantage of many of the unseen opportunities while navigating the pitfalls and challenges on the way.
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| Workshop agenda |
An introduction to the distressed debt phenomenon
- Historic return and risk from distressed debt
- Understanding the reasons behind companies’ fall into ‘distressed status’
- Examining the differing layers of debt
- How has the sub-prime crisis evolved to date?
- Assessing default scenarios and organisation recovery rates
- Rating the opportunities: can investors rely on rating agency outlooks?
- The investment outlook for structured credit opportunities
Regional, asset class and style investing opportunities
- Generating an investment and trading strategy
- The role of hedge funds in distressed debt
- Private equity’s view of distressed debt
- Identifying distressed debt opportunities in emerging markets
- European versus US distressed debt: fundamental differences
- Accessing distressed debt: equity, derivatives, corporate loans
The outlook for M&A, event driven trading and leveraged finance
- Current market environment for M&A and event driven trading
- Due diligence: how deep has the credit crunch cut?
- Is M&A likely to rebound with force in 2009?
- Assessing depreciated assets: which industries should investors be analysing?
- Can leveraged finance be restored or could a lack of lending affect take-up?
The outlook for distressed debt: maximising returns and minimising the risk
- Identifying the tools to analyse opportunities
- Political and economic drivers for return
- Industry drivers for return
- Which layer to invest into
- Avoiding hidden distressed problems
- When will further opportunities emerge?
WORKSHOP TO BE HOSTED BY:
Simon Davies, Vice President, Distressed Debt & Special Situations, Blackstone Group
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