The judge in the asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) saga has delayed a hearing until Tuesday on whether claims of fraud can proceed as part of the market restructuring scheme.
Justice Colin Campbell wants to give the lawyers involved time to understand the proposed conditions of the fraud-shelter proposal.
His decision prevents the ABCP from being traded until Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the restructuring group.
For more on the ABCP story, click here to visit our special section, The Paper Chase click here.
• • •
Genus Appoints Addenda Capital to Manage Bond Portfolios
Genus Capital Management has chosen Montreal’s Addenda Capital to manage the firm’s fixed income portfolios.
“Partnering with high-performing specialists and outsource providers is the result of our quest to be excellent at what we do,” says Wayne Wachell, Genus CEO and chief investment officer. “Our arrangement with Addenda to manage our bonds enables us to focus on our investment operations on quantitative stock selection.”
The appointment of Addenda follows the selection of RBC Dexia Investor Services to provide a full range of administrative and trust services for Genus Capital Management’s $1.6 billion investment portfolio.
Addenda was recently acquired by the Co-Operators Group. To read Co-Operators Buying Addenda, click here.
• • •
Employers Expected to Increase Funding for Healthy Behaviour
The number of employers offering workers financial incentives to better manage their health is expected to jump sharply next year, according to a survey.
The National Business Group on Health/Watson Wyatt Report finds that half of the 453 large employers polled currently use incentives to encourage their workers to participate in health improvement activities, such as smoking cessation or weight management programs. However, by 2009 that number is expected to leap to 74%.
The survey finds that employers are using a wide range of financial incentives to promote healthier lifestyles, such as completing health risk appraisals and participating in health improvement and disease management programs. While most employers are rewarding healthy lifestyles, 6% say they penalize employees for poorly managing their health conditions.
According to the report, financial rewards typically consist of cash, but some employers tailor their programs, matching desired rewards with a specific behavior or activity. For example, premium or deductible credits are more effective than cash at boosting health risk appraisal (HRA) participation. Seventy-three percent of companies that offer premium credits and 67% that offer deductible credits have at least half of their workforce enrolled in an HRA compared with 17% that offer cash and 12% that offer no incentive.
“Companies are targeting specific results with incentives that align with their business goals and matter most to their workers,” says Bruce Kelley, senior group and health care consultant at Watson Wyatt. “For these types of rewards to be effective, it’s a matter of tailoring the incentive to the desired behavior and ensuring that employees are more involved in the process.”
• • •
AXA Rosenberg Launches Long/Short Investment Strategy
AXA Rosenberg Investment Managers is launching a new global long/short investment strategy that aims to deliver equity-like returns at substantially lower levels of risk and with low correlation to equity markets.
The AXA Rosenberg Global Advantage Long/Short strategy invests in large-and mid-cap equities across the U.S., Europe and Japan, with target regional weightings of 50% U.S., 40% Europe and 10% Japan.
“AXA Rosenberg’s clients are looking for strategies that can better address the ongoing volatile market conditions,” says Dr. Bill Ricks, Americas chief investment officer. “The Global Advantage Long/Short strategy aims to deliver equity market-like returns with substantially lower risk and a more even stream of returns over the long term.”
The strategy relies on a bottom-up stock selection process, which ranks more than 21,000 stocks based on their future earnings prospects relative to their peers. The selection process provides a potential competitive advantage for long/short investing in particular as it identifies a large number of short candidates—as well as long candidates—for portfolio construction on an ongoing basis.
For more about alternative investments, click here to visit A Trustee’s Guide to Alternative Investments. click here.