LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Spain’s ailing savings banks may struggle to raise enough capital from private investors to meet tough new rules, according to a Reuters poll of international investors running more than $2 trillion in funds.

Eleven out of the 13 pension schemes, fund and wealth managers surveyed expressed reservations about investing, with uncertainty over bad debt, transparency and Spain’s economy among their concerns.

Two respondents said they would not even consider buying into the banks – known as cajas – because they were too risky.

Barcelona-based La Caixa, seen as the best placed of the cajas, held a roadshow in Europe this week, meeting existing bondholders to discuss its plan to restructure and list on the stock market.

One London based chief investment officer said he might consider investing in the banks “but only after a thorough audit of their books by someone that investors could trust – ie completely independent of the Spanish government and banking system.”

“The books need to be transparent and the banks recapitalised. I believe that the real losses hidden on their books are massive,” he said.

The Spanish government has given the banks until September to raise capital ratios to up to 10 percent or some may face nationalisation. They would prefer to raise private funds to fix the legacy of a disastrous spree of real estate lending, but can call on a Spanish restructuring fund (FROB) if needed. [ID:nLDE70U2B8] [ID:nLDE7161CP]

LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Money manager State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) is chasing a slice of the 80 billion-euro ($110 billion) Irish pensions business to win mandates from retirement schemes forced to change their strategies to curb swelling deficits, an executive said.

Gregory Ehret, head of Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at the investment arm of State Street (STT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said the takeover of Bank of Ireland’s (BKIR.I: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) funds business had opened up a potentially lucrative market, where trustees are eyeing emerging markets to offset woeful returns from domestic investments.

SSgA announced in October that it would pay 57 million euros to acquire Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM), gaining access to the country for the first time. [ID:nLDE69L0MF]

“Irish investors are remarkably under-invested in emerging markets,” Ehret said, adding the local pension market has been “fairly under-served” by investment managers.

“What they are doing now and they were hardly doing in the past is diversifying (away) from Ireland,” he said.

Irish defined benefit pension funds, like most of their global peers, have been hit hard by choppy stock markets in the developed world in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

More than 70 percent of defined benefit schemes in Ireland were in deficit at Oct. 31, data from the Irish Association of Pension Fund shows.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s second-largest pension fund is putting more money into emerging markets and hedge funds, as it moves to dilute exposure to stocks that left it reeling in the financial crisis, its chief investor said.

The 31.6 billion pound Universities Superannuation Scheme USS.L is pouring an extra 320 million pounds into emerging market equities, while paring allocations to global equities from 62 percent to as low as 55 percent, Chief Investment Officer Roger Gray told Reuters.

Exposure to emerging markets will rise to 7.5 percent from 6.5 percent and is likely to rise further still, he said.

“I would not say 7.5 percent (in emerging markets) is the ultimate goal, but it is as far as we have set it at the moment. We should set that against the context where our overall equity exposure is reducing,” Gray said.

The realignment marks a significant departure from the traditional strategies pursued by the fund, which is second only to the BT (BT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) pension scheme in size.

Before Gray took the job in late 2009, the USS allocated about 70 percent of assets to global equities but lost about 7 billion pounds in the stock market slump following the credit crisis. Emerging market exposure was only around 5 percent of the fund.

HEDGE FUNDS

LONDON (Reuters) – The second-largest pension fund is putting more money into emerging markets and hedge funds, as it moves to dilute exposure to stocks that left it reeling in the financial crisis, its chief investor said. The 31.6 billion pound Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is pouring an extra 320 million pounds into emerging market equities, while paring allocations to global equities from 62 percent to as low as 55 percent, Chief Investment Officer Roger Gray told Reuters.

Exposure to emerging markets will rise to 7.5 percent from 6.5 percent and is likely to rise further still, he said.

“I would not say 7.5 percent (in emerging markets) is the ultimate goal, but it is as far as we have set it at the moment. We should set that against the context where our overall equity exposure is reducing,” Gray said.

The realignment marks a significant departure from the traditional strategies pursued by the fund, which is second only to the BT (BT.L: Quote, Profile, Research) pension scheme in size.

Before Gray took the job in late 2009, the USS allocated about 70 percent of assets to global equities but lost about 7 billion pounds in the stock market slump following the credit crisis. Emerging market exposure was only around 5 percent of the fund.

HEDGE FUNDS

As it moves away from equities, the scheme will also invest at least 1.5 percent or close to 500 million pounds in hedge funds, aspiring to a longer-term target of 5 percent. The fund may even go a bit further than that, Gray said.

LONDON, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) saw 800 million pounds in net outflows in its first quarter after clients withdrew from some property and fixed income funds as investors looked to boost exposure to equities.

The outflow hit the group’s shares, which were down 3.1 percent at 217.7 pence by 1234 GMT, lagging a 0.8 percent fall in the FTSE 250 Index .FTMC.

Analysts were sceptical Aberdeen could maintain robust revenue growth and win new business in the UK’s increasingly competitive asset management marketplace.

“This year may not match last year’s strength of gross fund inflows,” analysts at Oriel Financial said, while analysts at Charles Stanley Securities described the 800 million pound outflow as “slightly disappointing”.

The fund management firm posted total outflows of 13 billion pounds ($21 billion) in its first quarter — the last three months of 2010 — against 12.3 billion in the same quarter of 2009 as investors doubted the risk-return rewards of credit investment strategies against a backdrop of weak economies and sovereign distress.

Aberdeen posted 900 million pounds of client cash withdrawals from real estate, 2 billion pounds of exits from fixed income and 400 million pounds from money market products.

The segregated mandate business, which invests across all asset classes, fell by 5.7 billion pounds to 111.3 billion pounds.

LONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Currency manager Record Plc (RECL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has stopped bleeding client cash for the first time in a year mainly due to positive market movements, which means a full recovery is still some way off, its chief executive said on Tuesday. The firm has been losing clients steadily for the last year on the back of poor performance.

Record saw inflows of $500 million into its segregated Currency for Return business in the three months to Dec. 31 and a further $200 million of inflows in its passive currency hedging products, which investors buy to neutralise portfolios against currency fluctuation risks.

But at least 70 percent of these new inflows came from existing Record clients, demonstrating the challenges faced by the company in its efforts to win new business.

“It is too early to say we have turned the corner in terms of inflows in respect of the main Currency for Return products but this is a very welcome increase in the mandate for the bespoke programme,” CEO James Wood-Collins told Reuters.

Record said that the Currency for Return’s continuing poor performance and the overall three year negative performance led to further client redemptions in the last quarter.

Wood-Collins, who took over from founder and chairman Neil Record in October, said the firm would stick to the current strategy, adding that he expected the performance would improve. [ID:nLDE68909I]

“We have spent a good deal of time thinking, examining whether the underlying investment philosophy is still prevalent and whether the way that we do things is still optimal and we continue to believe it is,” he said.