Capital AllocationInsights NewsletterInvestment Management
January 21, 2020

What Would an AI-Driven Capital Allocation Look Like?

Founder’s Edition, by Joseph Neu Perennial discussions of capital allocation tend to end up in essentially the same place.My friend Tom Joyce at Deutsche Bank circulated the chart below last week in his “Chart of the Day” email. This one caught my eye because it shows how corporate uses of capital, at least at the S&P 500-company level, are pretty consistent year to year. M&A and Buybacks. Tom calls out the changes: “During the current M&A upcycle, which began in late…
Capital MarketsInvestment ManagementUncategorized
November 29, 2019

Prepare for a Surging Green Wave of ESG Products

By Joseph Neu BNP Paribas highlights a veritable tsunami of sustainability-linked finance products.   “Treasurers should be preparing for a tsunami of sustainability-linked finance products,” one NeuGroup member treasurer told me recently in response to market events of the last year. To underscore the importance of that notion, Hervé Duteil, chief sustainability officer for BNP Paribas in the Americas, presented his view to NeuGroup’s Tech20 Treasurers’ Peer Group last month. He described three big waves, or “revolutions,” in sustainable finance:…
Insights NewsletterInvestment ManagementUncategorized
November 6, 2019

Prepping Pensions for Potentially Perilous Periods

By Joseph Neu Managers of frozen or closed pension funds need to be prepared for transitional periods.  Managers of pension funds on a decumulation journey (with more cash flows going out of the plan than coming in) need to be wary of the different dynamics in this stage of the savings cycle. Investors are more vulnerable to shocks and more susceptible to forced selling, all with a greater time dependency on realizing returns. This is particularly true during periods of…
BankingInvestment Management
January 22, 2019

Beware Zero-Based Floors

Chatham: Banks embedding zero-based floors in the fine-print on some floating debt. With rates going negative around the world, banks are embedding zero-based floors into the floating-rate loans they provide, and while on the surface that seems like a plus, they can end up carrying a big price. That was one of several insights on today’s uncertain financial markets that Kennett Square, PA-headquartered Chatham Financial provided in a recent market update titled. “Global uncertainty packs a local punch.” Zero-based floors…