Browsing: due diligence

By Bill Kelly, CEO, CAIA Association Ask someone of a certain generation to name the most common worldwide distress signal, and they will likely come back with SOS. No surprise then that this same signal, borne from the Morse code, turns 111 years old on this date in history. MostRead More

The data and analysis provider eVestment has issued a new white paper on “enhancing private equity manager selection with deeper data.” PE funds below the top quartile have not materially outperformed the public markets as a matter of history. So for an institutional investor, earning alpha is in large measureRead More

Jason Williams, senior vice president at Lazard Asset Management, has written a white paper on the “six sins of smart beta.” First: what is smart beta? Academic studies indicate anomalies in the markets that somehow don’t get arbitraged away.  These become identified as “factors” and indexes can be designed soRead More

It has been 20 years since the Alternative Investment Management Association published its first due diligence questionnaire, a template designed to standardize the diligence process by which investors decide if a particular management is right for them. Now it has published a new questionnaire/template, covering a broader range of entities/strategies.Read More

A new paper available at SSRN looks at two infamous commodity industry melt-downs: Amaranth and MF Global. It offers a diagnosis of each. The paper is co-authored by Hilary Till, of EDHEC – Risk, and Richard Heckinger, of the Working Group on Financial Markets, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. InRead More

By Dana Comolli, president, DMAXX LLC Every trader who has tried to raise money knows the drill from investors: yes we want to know about your performance, but also, explain in detail your back office (infrastructure, organization). Most allocators come with pages of checklists and expect the manager to beRead More

How sturdy can a bamboo bridge be? The front page of a new Guide from The Alternative Investment Management Association consists of a photo of a bamboo bridge, apparently on a beach, as seen from below. That is, this is the view of someone on whom the bridge would fall,Read More

Some of the reasoning of the courts seems a bit circular to a layperson. Still, the gist is clear enough. Shareholders were cheated when Rural Metro was sold at a price well below its fair market value, and RBC has both the liability and the deep pockets necessary to make that right. Read More

No one likes those bloated questionnaires. Perhaps twenty-five out of 300 questions are both relevant and important. So, to get better results, customize and re-focus the questions. Read More