China commission planning to set up a new Asset management company
The state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission in China, which currently oversees 138 state companies directly controlled by the central government, has been trying since 2005 to establish an asset management company. The plan is being considered to set up a new company to manage some of the country’s nearly 18 trillion yuan (2.6 billion dollars), China Daily reported, citing director Li Rongrong who was there to make his say during an online question and answer session. However, Li did not give details of the scope of the new company or a timetable for its establishment.
Li also warned many state-owned enterprises were not qualified to make overseas acquisitions and would have to improve their corporate governance.
“Only by increasing corporate governance can they have more opportunity to make a successful merger and acquisition,” quoted Li.
The commission is also planning to reduce its Central Government controlled oversees 138 state companies to between 80 and 100 through restructuring and consolidation.
Subscribe to the comments for this postWhat does Digital Asset Management System do for us?
Digital asset management systems are computer software and/or hardware systems which consist of tasks and decisions surrounding ingesting, annotating, cataloguing, storage and retrieval of digital assets, such as digital photographs, animations, videos and music.
The term “digital asset management” (DAM) also refers to the protocol for downloading, renaming, backing up, rating, grouping, archiving, optimizing, maintaining, thinning, and exporting files. It can thus be deemed as the technology which helps us to manage the mass of data which we work with in our personal and professional lives.
The tasks performed by a DAM involves searching for a digital asset, organizing digital assets, backing up digital assets, securing digital assets, verifying the integrity of digital assets and discovering duplicate copies of digital assets.
If also tells us how often are specific assets used and what are the least used or most used assets in the DAM. It also helps us evaluate the quality of all metadata in the DAM and review the orders in bulk if there is an ordering system with our DAM. It tell us how many users are actively registered with the DAM and how many of them are actually using the DAM and also who are the most active users of the DAM.
Thus with the reports generated by DAM, we can get a host of information which can be filtered and sorted to answer plenty of questions which in turn aid the progress of our organization.
Asset management from Islamic perspective during the Global Financial Crisis
Under the patronage of Osama Bin Sadek Tayyeb, president of the King Abdul Aziz University, a seminar with the theme ‘asset management from Islamic perspective during the Global Financial Crisis’ was organized by the Islamic Economics Research Center in collaboration with Economics and Management Faculty. Various speakers from academic institutions and experts from financial organizations added weight to the seminar. Some noted ones include Toby Birch, managing director of a British financial firm that offers Islamic Financial solutions to its clients; Dr. Nagaoka Shinsuke, a professor of Islamic economic studies at the center for Southeast Asian studies from Kyoto university in Japan; Dr. Ignacio De La Torre, finance expert from IE University in Spain; Dr. Sami Ibrahim Swailem, prominent expert in the field of Islamic finance, a senior economist, Islamic Research and Training Institute at the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB) Jeddah; Andrew Broadley, chief executive officer of Al-Khabeer International; and Dr. Ahmed Mahdi Belwafi, researcher in the Center for Islamic Economic Researches and a specialist in financial crisis.
The university organizes various events to discuss the scene and importance of asset management in the current global financial crisis and this seminar was one of such events.
Al-Khabeer expressed its belief that in order to boost performance the “best solution lies in managing funds with a dual focus on both risk and return.” According to the Broadley, the CEO of Al-Khabeer International, an alternative strategy would be “managing for the total return over an economic cycle, combining alpha generation from bottom-up stock selection with flexible asset allocation and strong operational risk controls. The ultimate goal is to lock in profits and limit the downside to an acceptable risk budget.”
Broadley emphasized the need of staying focused on addressing the specific needs of investor based on research. He suggested that in these difficult times Al-Khabeer’s “unique customer-centric strategy” would position the company to build better funds “faster than the competitors.”
“The expected consequence of our vision is the establishment of a business which is capable of enduring for the long-term, the nature of the business cycle notwithstanding,” he added.
Acquisitions in Asset Management industry concerns the economists
With Blackrock acquiring Barclays Global Investors, the economists are concerned with the question of diminishing margins and capital deficiency in the asset management industry and in this regard, one can definitely quote here the words of BlackRock vice chair Bob Doll, “As many as half of the world’s asset managers are breaking even at best”.
The point to be noted here is that the asset management business is not primarily a risky business as it has a predictable fee-based revenue stream. But the fact is that the economic recession in the past year has resulted in a failure to materialize anticipated cost savings leading to acquisitions of many asset management firms.
The drawback of these firms may be attributed to firms’ expanding their cost structures, a combination of investment growth and new contributions to 401(k) funds, and finally decreasing efficiency. At the same time, while marketing directly to institutions is fairly inexpensive, marketing your services to a retail audience can become costly. The economists also say that the asset management industry often fails to adjust its scale when it comes to increasing efficiency in management with the growth. As funds grow, it’s inevitable that their holdings make them more and more like the major indices. They can’t possibly take large enough positions in small caps to impact performance as they grow.
The economists conclude that in the years to come, there will be a growth in smaller, independent firms in asset management sector but the giant firms like BlackRock Global Investors, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and Vanguard will surely continue to grow.
How do CPAM systems work?
Companies use software packages like Capital Planning and Asset Management (CPAM) systems for long-term capital planning for funding of their organization as these packages help in the assessment of not only the current position but can also catalog deferred maintenance needs, classify ratings and priorities, collect cost estimates, assess current buildings, components and assets and thus develop capital plans.. CPAM systems are most commonly used by federal government organizations, K – 12 school districts, hospitals, local and state governments, property management groups and engineering and architectural firms, government sub-contractors, hotels, resorts, and corporate campuses and also by healthcare organizations, universities, and many other entities, including multi-site enterprises.
CPAM systems work by collecting and storing information in a central database from where the data can be used for current analysis and future planning. The stored data are used for current assessments and develop plans for capital planning improvements. These softwares help in the maintenance of equipments too as they keep track of preventive maintenance schedules, service contracts, problem reports and material inventories. So, the organization gets the benefit of proper allocation of resources and manpower thereby minimizing wastage of time and efforts.
Increasing importance of Web-based applications for Asset Management
In order to avail efficient space management and to keep in check the building operating costs, the organizations these days are opting for computer aided facilities management systems combined with traditional IT infrastructures. These new advancements help in sharing data between building systems as well as other business applications. These systems can provide even more additional facilities when they are combined with the asset management, space management and property information. By creating more open systems, the facility managers these days are making analysis of fixed asset tracking maintenance, space utilization and planning relocation. The emphasis these days in on the shift of the present technologies into web-based applications.
It is very important to have a track and full information of the fixed assets within an organization. For this, one can opt for some asset tracking software which gives a detailed understanding of the real-time inventory and condition assessment of their assets. With the proper management of fixed assets, the organizations can schedule preventive maintenance, and also help in asset management, and asset relocation. The organizations are able to get a clear view of the location of the fixed assets and also get to know what they own and also the condition in which this fixed asset is presently.
Blackrock acquires Barclays Global investors
In the bubble years, Barclays had taken quite a few loans and investments. Now, as an extra bit of caution against looses on these loans and investments and also as an additional step to safeguard against any untoward circumstances that may crop up with darker economic times, the company has sold one of its prized possessions, Barclays Global Investors or BGI, to BlackRock of the US. This deal has made BlackRock into the world’s biggest money manager, with a striking £1.9 trillion of funds under management - which is more-or-less the size of the entire hedge fund industry.
The deal has been finalized at a price of £8.2bn, half of which is payable in cash and the rest to be paid in BlackRock shares. So, the deal credits Barclays with 19.9 per cent of this vast enlarged financial machine. The price seems to be quite justified, taking into account BGI’s earnings and its implicit share of Barclays’ overall market value.
Now, if BlackRock does well, Barclays will benefit. The only point which demands attentions in this deal the £16m reward it yields for Bob Diamond, the head of Barclays’ investment bank.
ResQ Track and Trace is now ResQ Mobile Services
After running successfully in Canada for four years, ResQ Track & Trace has decided for a name change to ResQ Mobile Services, as has been declared by Chad Hughes, ResQ founder and president.
Says Hughes, “When we launched in 2005, we were tracking vehicles exclusively. The company has grown a lot since then and, based on demand in the marketplace, we thought it was the right time for a name change and one that reflected the realities of our evolving customer base.”
“We’ve been asked to track temperature changes within refrigerated containers, media screens within transit shelters and lightbulbs within industrial developments,” Hughes continues. “We can do all those things, and more, but people still think we only track trucks.”
At present, ResQ is involved in offering an end-to-end asset management and communication system for the transportation and logistics industries. Last month, it has also introduced a new product called Trackberry™ for smartphone users. Trackberry™ can also be downloaded and installed onto any GPS-enabled device, to track mobile employees, thus enabling employers to track sales and service personnel in the field and acquire automatically a record of their activities. The company is also shortly releasing Findr™ for consumers which will enable parents to track their wandering teenagers, young children and in fact parents of parents.
ResQ offers real-time asset management systems using GPS technology to enhance mobile communications and wireless business processes. ResQ mobile asset management systems support the transportation, logistics and service industries and have already carved out a niche for itself in North America market
Benchmark expects growth in gold industry’s collection
Indian money manager Benchmark Asset Management, which launched India’s first gold fund in March 2007, expects industry’s gold collection to rise to 10 tonnes, from nearly 5 tonnes now, given the increase in awareness and availability. It also aims to grow client base in its gold exchange traded fund by more than 50 percent.
Rajan Mehta, executive director expects that its ETF investors would grow to more than 50,000 in the next two years and says, “We feel awareness has reached its critical stage, and the growth would be faster now. One more thing that has to happen is gold prices should correct sharply as high prices are also a deterrent.”
Gold Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) are instruments that are traded like shares and are backed by physical gold holdings. Mehta feels that if the drawback of the lack of dematerialisation accounts in the rural areas is sorted out, the number of investors would rise manifold.
Currently, there are five fund houses offering the fund to investors, which also includes like India’s No 1 mutual fund firm Reliance Capital Asset Management and oldest money manager, UTI.
According to the World Gold Council data, in 2008, India’s total gold consumption stood at 660.2 tonnes, of which jewellery demand contributed 469.7 tonnes.
SEB launches simultaneous funds in Sweden and Spain
SEB Asset Management has simultaneously launched SEB Real Estate Portfolio fund for sale in Sweden along with the SEB Multi-Manager Currency Fund for sale in Spain.
After since SEB launched the SEB Real Estate Portfolio, this is the first time the Swedish retail investors are to gain access to a real estate fund of funds. Previously Swedish investors were restricted to only being able to invest in equities in the real estate space.
Barbara Knoflach, CEO of SEB Asset Management in Frankfurt said, “In recent years Sweden has seen a sharp increase in interest in real estate as an asset class, and especially in real estate products that are less volatile than real estate equities.”
The fund’s strategy focuses on open-ended real estate funds for between 60% and 90% of the portfolio, real estate equities for up to 20% and cash, also up to 20%, while office properties is the main area in terms of sector allocation, followed by retail and logistics.
Dr Thorsten Schilling had joined the SEB Asset Management Frankfurt as a global real estate strategist and fund manager in October 2006 and has taken the helm of the new fund. He headed the real estate research department at Feri Rating & Research before joining SEB Asset Management.
The German arm of SEB’s asset management business is the Swedish firm’s real estate centre of expertise, with some €10 billion and 250 properties in 21 countries under management. Meanwhile, SEB has also presented the SEB Multi-Manager Currency Fund in Spain, although the paperwork to register the fund with the Spanish financial authority CNMV is still in progress.
The SEB Multi-Manager Currency Fund is also a UCITs III fund of funds product. It invests in the foreign exchange market, the largest wholesale market worldwide, using up to 10 different underlying fund managers.