Money Maze Podcast

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn In a first for the Money Maze Podcast, this episode brings together the perspectives of 3 China experts to discuss the economy, public equities and private assets.  The three guests are Chingxiao Shao, CEO of Red Gate Asset Management, Ron Cao, Founder & Managing Partner of Sky9 Capital, and Chi Lo, Senior Economist at BNP Paribas. The objective in this podcast is to explore the investment opportunities available in public and private markets after a year in which rising political tensions and government interventions have brought about a sharp bear market.  The conversation begins with a review in which it is clear that the Chinese central bank has not resorted to debt monetisation on the scale of the Fed, whilst China still enjoys huge trade surpluses, unlike the US with its large deficits. We discuss the implications of this for Chinese fixed income products and the currency.  We then move to questions about the importance of the private sector to the Chinese economy and examine whether new regulations which have led to sharp declines in headline names and sectors suggest anything more insidious. From there, Ching discusses the opportunities in public equities, Ron covers VC and Chi provides context and warns of the dangers of viewing Chinese assets through an exclusively Western lens. The discussion reviews the very large buybacks seen in Hong Kong by many corporates and their owners, the valuations and opportunities, as well as fault lines and red lines that Ron, Ching and Chi believe are important. Finally, we discuss whether Chinese assets may actually offer country diversification, given their evolution and the different current monetary stance.

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn Our latest guest has been described as one of the ‘World’s Top 50 Thinkers’, is a Sunday Times bestselling author for his epic work ‘Silk Roads: A New History of the World’, is responsible for the prophetic article in December 2019 where he predicted a pandemic’s likely arrival, and has managed all this around his day job as the Professor of Global History at Oxford University. In this fast-paced, far-reaching conversation, Peter demonstrates his terrific understanding of both the past and present, offering his perspectives about the future of our world. The discussion begins with his reflections on this pandemic, then moves to what we can learn from looking at the world’s changing order through a wider lens. He weighs the competing forces of a rising China, the West jockeying for position, the continuing role of religion and Russia’s dealing with “a weak hand”. He offers his perspective and some optimism in light the abundant worries of military conflict in Taiwan, as well as the ongoing China/US spats. He also speaks about the role of education in driving growth, and where he believes some of the more compelling investment opportunities lie. Finally Peter offers some great advice to us all about learning and the necessity of grit!

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn In an industry where size is often a boast, there are few powerhouses with great credentials and a low profile. Founded in the US in 1973, Cambridge Associates (CA) was established to provide investment research and advice to a group of major US university endowments. Fifty years later, with over $550 billion of assets under advisement and 11 offices around the world, CA helps its investors customise portfolios.  In this conversation, Annachiara Marcandalli, CA’s European Head of Sustainability and Impact Investing, as well as Partner at the firm, addresses their approach to customising portfolios. She explains why it’s their belief that successful investing is incremental, not transformational. She discusses their search to identify managers’ economic incentives and alignment, before addressing the style drift, and why value and growth may cease to be relevant terms in the future. She speaks of the challenge presented by the rush into impact and sustainable investing - separating the “surfers” from the “serious” - and why ESG engagement matters. Finally she speaks of liquidity around private assets, how they address crypto investing and the dangers of excessive reliance on financial modelling (as opposed to building resilience into portfolio construction).

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn Some of the most successful companies financed via venture capital are now household names - Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Airbnb, & PayPal. Venture capital has moved from niche to mainstream for institutional investors, and in Q2 2021 alone VC investment hit a new record high of $157.1 billion. In today’s conversation we are delighted to welcome Hunter Somerville, VC heavyweight, formerly General Partner at Greenspring, and now post-merger, Partner at Stepstone. In this episode Hunter describes his career to date and his world of venture capital & growth equity. He describes the wider adoption of venture capital as an asset class, how allocations are increasing and the nature of long term returns. He describes his key responsibilities, which involve sourcing venture funds of all stages, examining early and growth stage companies, as well as finding secondary opportunities. He then explains why companies are staying private for much longer than in previous decades, StepStone’s competitive advantage, geographic and sector preferences, valuations, risks and opportunities in the sector.  Finally, Hunter comments on the characteristics they seek in their venture capital managers, why length of relationships is a key competitive advantage and why the surge in VC investing is unlikely to prove a passing phenomenon. Sign up to our newsletter and never miss a release! | Visit our website | Follow us on LinkedIn | Follow us on Twitter

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn In light of the ongoing COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, we're re-releasing our episode featuring Sir Ronald Cohen. Sir Ronald is the Co-Founder of Apax Partners and is widely referred to as the 'father of social investment' (as well as being a key figure in shaping British venture capital). His 2020 book, 'Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change', was a Sunday Times Bestseller and shortlisted in the Financial Times' 'Best Economics Books of 2020' rankings. Sir Ronald Cohen’s extraordinary story begins in Egypt in 1956 where the Suez crisis has taken place and Egyptian nationalism is on the rise, forcing his family to leave everything and flee to England, not even speaking the language. Armed only with ambition and hope and hard work, he gets into grammar school, wins a scholarship to Oxford, then to Harvard Business school and moves on to build one of the largest venture capital firms in the world, Apax. Over the last 20 years, he has been invited to advise governments, chaired the G8 task force for impact investment, helping drive the revolution to rethink the way we invest. Along the way he has authored 3 books, the most recent being 'Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change'. He has sat on the University of Oxford Investment Committee, been a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School and Vice-Chairman of Ben Gurion University. He talks about the opportunities created by attending Oxford and Harvard, his journey to help create the UK Venture Capital industry, co-founding Apax, and the role private equity plays in developed economies, including discussing some of its perceived drawbacks. The conversation moves to entrepreneurship, and his first book, 'The Second Bounce of the Ball – Turning Risk into Opportunity' and the critical role job-creation will play in the post-COVID landscape. This leads to his thoughts on the profound importance Impact Investing must and will play, and its essential role in the evolution of capitalism. Specifically he discusses the need to have company accounts properly measure impact and how this sub-sector of the investment management industry is accelerating, as evidenced by the growth of the Social Impact Bond (SIB) and Harvard’s impact-weighted accounts. The conversation moves on to discuss how and what Governments should do, the evolution of philanthropy in this environment, and advice for young people thinking about careers, and finally his perspectives on an extraordinary journey. Interview originally recorded in September 2020. Want to meet some of our past show guests and join the Money Maze Podcast community? The Money Maze Corporate Partnership Programme is now live! Sign up to our newsletter and never miss a release | Visit our website | Follow us on LinkedIn | Follow us on Twitter    

From zero to $40 billion in 20 years is growth we usually associate with tech startups. When it happens to a firm in the world of asset management, it is all the more remarkable. Dubbed originally as ‘the money manager to the money managers’, today Partners Capital is an outsourced investment office acting for endowments, foundations and ultra-high-net-worth families. In this conversation Arjun describes his education in India, journey to management consulting and his MBA at INSEAD, then working in a hedge fund before moving to Partners Capital. Arjun describes the evolution of the endowment model first adopted by David Swensen at Yale, by analysing asset classes, risk premia, liquidity and the hunt for great managers. Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn He discusses their assessment of high fees for seeking alpha, how they seek out opportunities at asset class and manager level, and their work on discovering “alternative alternatives”. He responds to criticisms that endowments on average have not beaten the classic 65/35 equity/debt model and of the challenges ahead. Finally Arjun speaks of the two ‘mega trends’ (sustainable investing and investment capital moving to Asia) in an interview that delves into the Partners Capital investment process.

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn Confronted with a kaleidoscope of challenges and shifting allocations brought about by years of QE and zero rates, along with a rise in inflation that may prove more permanent than central bankers wish, not to mention rising geopolitical tensions, asset allocators are likely to have their work cut out in coming years. In this episode we have the opportunity to talk to Johanna Kyrklund, Schroders’ Group Chief Investment Officer & Global Head of Multi-Asset. Schroders today is one of the UK’s largest investment managers, responsible for circa £700 billion of clients’ assets. In this conversation Johanna discusses allocating assets in today’s environment, from fixed income, to equities through to alternatives. Johanna talks about dispersion in valuations, the active versus passive debate and her thoughts on adjusting portfolios to confront the more inflationary environment. She discusses gold and crypto, along with having your voice heard as an active investor engaging with managements. Also covered is her thoughts on the importance of active ownership when it comes to ESG and integrating sustainability into portfolios.  She discusses why the investment process has its greatest value at times of market stress, why listening to clients helps the search for solutions and how she, as an initially shy graduate, has overcome self-doubt to rise to such a prominent position. She concludes with some valuable comments about women in the workplace. Want to meet some of our past show guests and join the Money Maze Podcast community? The Money Maze Corporate Partnership Programme is now live!

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn Over the past decade, about 80 cents of every dollar that has gone into the US investment industry has ended up at Vanguard, State Street, and BlackRock. As a result, the combined stake in S&P 500 companies held by the Big Three has quadrupled, from about 5 percent in 1998 to north of 20 percent today. Those lines are from a new book - Trillions- Why Passive investing beats Active written by our guest today, Robin Wigglesworth, the Financial Times  Global Finance correspondent In this conversation, Robin explains the forces that drove the creation of the passive investing industry, the key architects and the roles they played, how he shows that passive beats active in developed markets over time, but the controversy and dangers emerging from this financial tsunami and where we might be going. Robin brings to life the determination of men like Jack Bogle (Vanguard) who championed passive investing “The math will never let you down”, to Paul Samuelson, William Sharpe and Warren Buffet, who has long argued the merits of passive investing in the S&P 500. Robin concludes - The exact statistics vary between countries and types of market that they invest in, but roughly speaking, only 10 to 20 percent of active funds beat their benchmarks over any rolling ten- year period. In other words, investing is a rare walk in life where it generally pays to be lazy and choose a cheap passive fund. This Episodes Themes and Collaborations Learn more about Robin Wigglesworth, the Financial Times' Global Finance Correspondent. Jack Bogle transformed the investment management industry. Bogle was a crusader for individual investors, working to bring the interests of asset managers in line with those of their investment clients. Delve into why Paul Singer thinks index funds are devouring Capitalism. A piece in which Robin agrees with Warren Buffetts’ unconventional views on ESG Investing. Recommended reading, by Robin Wigglesworth: Trillions- Why Passive Investing Beats Active Relevant to Robin Wigglesworth talking about the most fertile ground for active management is the emerging markets episode with Dr Christina McGuire. The Money Maze Podcast is going on its second programme of ambassadors and if you know of any students or young working adults interesting in applying please forward them this website link. Hopefully we can keep you entertained and loving the show but to ensure this happens in the future, please would you do this survey to let us know your thoughts and feedback. Sign up to our newsletter and never miss a release! | Visit our website | Follow us on LinkedIn | Follow us on Twitter

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn It’s difficult enough to train to become a doctor and then practice in some emerging countries with fragile health systems like Papua New Guinea. But then to switch tack completely, give all that up, win a place at Harvard Business School and join Goldman Sachs in asset management before going on to launch your own fund in emerging markets, may be considered brilliance or heresy, particularly when you come from Germany, a country that reveres technical expertise and is less enthusiastic about the merits of finance. So in this conversation I am delighted to unravel an unconventional journey and welcome Dr Christina McGuire, CEO of Elephant Asset Management, as our guest. We discuss her upbringing and German attitudes to finance, before touching upon her medical journey, her decision to go to Harvard Business school and then join Goldman Sachs. She discusses working and investing in China, the skills taught and culture encouraged at Goldman's, before she explains her decision to go it alone. She describes the investment approach of her firm, Elephant Asset Management, where she manages a concentrated, stock-specific, emerging market equity fund. She explains her philosophy and style, detailing geographic, sectoral and company disciplines as well as the significant opportunities created by the post-Covid world for her domestically-focused companies. She describes the due diligence process, the need to eye ball CEO and CFOs and why she believes company visits and sitting in the staff canteen of investing companies are great ways to gauge culture, and sense the mood. Christina also explains why the S&G in ESG are significantly more measurable in the countries in which she invests. Finally Christina talks about how women should really think about asset management as a career, and offers some other great advice for young people thinking about their futures. Due to the similar themes discussed in our latest episode release (with Robin Wigglesworth, Global Finance Correspondent at the Financial Times), we're pleased to be re-releasing our discussion with Christina McGuire. Like Robin, she also shares some fascinating arguments in the active v passive debate.  The chat is a topical one too given the current buzz around the transformative 2021 German election. In the episode, Christina shares her thoughts on the structural strengths of the Europe's largest economy and examines why its finance sector remains relatively underdeveloped. She also explains why she believes Angela Merkel has done a "remarkable job". This interview was originally recorded in August 2020.      

Sign up to our newsletter for more in-depth insights | Follow us on LinkedIn If you were told that abnormally low interest rates and quantitative easing would provide huge tailwinds for higher equity prices, then it isn’t obvious you would chose to run a fund whose activity was entirely focused on short-selling. However in today’s episode, Carson Block, Founder & CIO of Muddy Waters Research, describes his early exposure to fraudulent listed companies in the US, before intrigue and law took him to Asia. There he started on a path to discover and unmask some extraordinarily high profile corporate frauds. Detailed research, site-visits, scepticism about management claims and forensic analysis all featured on his journey which resulted in collapsing stock prices and humiliated investors. Eight of the companies he has exposed as frauds have been delisted from stock exchanges. Two others settled charges with regulators, with Sino-Forest being one of the high profile casualties. Carson describes his approach to identifying potential malpractice, the investment process and explains his willingness to take on large corporations. He shows why he clearly isn’t interested in winning popularity contests He describes his investment criteria, the paramount importance of risk management, his motivations, dealing with the criticisms and hostility he has faced, his firm's ambitions and the characteristics needed to succeed in this space. Finally he comments on SPACs, Tesla, the challenges of shorting in a world of negative real rates and why he believes China will lose out to countries like Vietnam (where he prefers to make his long bets).