Go on, pick up that £20 note!
There is a hoary old chestnut about the professor of economics walking through the City with a graduate student. They see a £20 note lying on the pavement across the street, and the student makes as if to cross the road to pick it up.
“Don’t bother,” says the professor. “It must be a fake. If it were real, someone would already have picked it up.”
Soak ‘em good
There’s a lot of loose chat about downward pressure on fees, but those who say that it will only affect the mediocre may be right. One fund manager at least is seeing opportunities for nudging fees upwards, on one new product.
Ashmore Group is offering to take distressed assets off your hands in return for fat management and performance fees. The assets in question could be anything in emerging markets that is suffering from illiquidity. Investors, such as banks or pension funds, may not want them on their books currently, as mark to market valuations are unflattering, but nor do they want to sell them in such an unwelcoming environment.
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FTfm's specialist writing team offer their insights into the global fund management industry.
Pauline Skypala has been editor of FTfm for four years having previously been deputy personal finance editor. She joined the FT in 1999 and has been writing on savings and investment issues throughout her career.
Steve Johnson, FTfm deputy editor, has been a journalist for 17 years, 10 of which have been with the FT.
Sophia Grene, reporter on FTfm, has been a financial journalist in print and online for 12 years.
Ruth Sullivan has worked as a financial/business journalist and foreign correspondent and for the past 10 years has been at the FT.
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