Manulife Investment Management’s Global Intelligence Report Sees Opportunity Despite Uncertainty Over the Next 12 Months
Room for expansion in the credit cycle and notable investment potential in private infrastructure and select emerging markets amid market muddle
Explores climate change as a key factor in portfolio management
Looks at opportunities in liability-driven investing for retirement
June 25, 2019
TORONTO and BOSTON – Manulife Investment Management today released its biannual Global Intelligence report, a firmwide outlook highlighting notable perspectives from its private and public markets investment teams. Key themes in the report include global trade tensions, private infrastructure investing, ESG investing and climate change, the credit cycle and its implications for global fixed income, select growth in emerging market equities and liability-driven investing.
“The global economy and markets continue to experience volatility and trend toward risk aversion. Despite the uncertainty and a short supply of broad-based growth, we see durable public markets opportunities in the second half of the year including global equities and emerging markets debt,” said Christopher Conkey, head of public markets at Manulife Investment Management. “At the same time, we believe investors should consider the potential benefit of longer-term investment disciplines such as liability-driven and sustainable investment strategies to ensure they are positioned in a way that may benefit their portfolios through market cycles.”
“Heightened volatility has created a much more complex investment landscape,” said Stephen Blewitt, head of private markets at Manulife Investment Management. “By highlighting the nuanced risks and rewards in different private market asset classes, we aim to help investors navigate through short-term disruptions and longer-term trends with a focus on high potential opportunities for their investment portfolios.”
Notable asset class shifts and guidance include:
“Global economic outlook: the fog of uncertainty has thickened” — Chief Economist and Head of Macroeconomic Strategy Frances Donald describes continued uncertainty as global trade tensions rise. With the escalation of a U.S. - China trade war, she describes why market volatility will be front and center over the next 12 months, leading to a murky investment outlook in the short term.
“Infrastructure investing in the digital age” — Head of Infrastructure Investments and Portfolio Manager Recep Kendircioglu explores infrastructure as an important diversifying asset class that continues to evolve, creating new avenues for institutional investors such as those in data infrastructure, while reinforcing the ongoing importance for valuation discipline at this point in the economic cycle.
“Sustainable investing in a time of climate change” — Global Head of Environmental, Social, and Governance Research and Integration Emily Chew discusses how corporate entities, investors and governments engage in sustainable investing as both an art and a science that should be anchored by deep climate analysis and quantifiable portfolio resilience.
“Where we are in the credit cycle—and why we still have room to run” — Senior Portfolio Manager Daniel Janis unpacks the anatomy of the credit cycle and reasons why there is still room left for expansion despite volatility, including that the risks to the corporate bond markets are mostly geopolitical in nature rather than fundamental or macroeconomic.
“Understanding the growth opportunity for today’s top emerging-market companies” — Senior Portfolio Managers Kathryn Langridge and Philip Ehrmann describe how investors should look closely at the intersection of favorable demographics, transformative technology and progressive economic reform and how it can reshape the investment landscape for select emerging market companies.
“Seeking a sustainable retirement income with liability-driven investing” — Global Head of Liability-Driven Investment Research Serge Lapierre shares how the demographic shift has created new retirement savings challenges which has also opened the door for effective, liability-driven investing strategies not only for defined benefit plans but also for some individual investors.
About Manulife Investment Management
Manulife Investment Management is the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than 150 years of financial stewardship to partner with clients across our institutional, retail, and retirement businesses globally. Our specialist approach to money management includes the highly differentiated strategies of our fixed-income, specialized equity, multi-asset solutions, and private markets teams—along with access to specialized, unaffiliated asset managers from around the world through our multimanager model. Our personalized, data-driven approach to retirement is focused on delivering financial wellness in retirement plans of all sizes to help plan participants and members retire with dignity.
Headquartered in Toronto, we operate as Manulife Investment Management throughout the world, with the exception of the United States, where the retail and retirement businesses operate as John Hancock Investment Management and John Hancock, respectively; and in Asia and Canada, where the retirement business operates as Manulife. Manulife Investment Management had C$837 billion (USD $626 billion) in assets under management and administration as of March 31, 20191. Not all offerings available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit our website at manulifeinvestmentmgt.com.
1. Source: MFC financials. Global Wealth and Asset Management AUMA at March 31, 2019 was C$837 billion and includes $189 billion of assets managed on behalf of other segments and $134 billion of assets under administration.
