威灵顿总裁：看多亚洲市场，投资中国正当时

威灵顿投资管理公司总裁Stephen Klar先生近日出席全球财富管理论坛上海苏河湾峰会时，就主动资产管理的全球趋势及中国投资机会发表演讲。

 

作为受益人过百万、在管资产超1万亿美元的独立投资管理机构负责人，Klar先生从全球私人财富管理焦点、主动管理重要性、长期投资的可持续因素以及中国市场潜力四个方面阐述了威灵顿在资产管理行业的趋势性判断。基于2020年高净值个人财富增长数据，Klar先生指出，亚洲特别是中国的私人财富管理需求正日益旺盛，但具体到个体客户，这些需求将呈现“一事一议”的特点，需要机构对这类客户量体裁衣，方可分享共同收益。关于主动管理与另类投资，Klar先生强调，要利用好数字技术，赋能市场基本面研究，将非上市资产与上市资产进行整合，筑牢投资组合穿越周期的能力。谈到可持续投资及气候变化，Klar先生认为ESG将对投资回报产生正向促进作用，并以威灵顿在碳减排方面的切实行动作为案例，坚定地看多有助于应对全球气候变化方向的投资。最后，Klar先生高度评价中国市场的未来成长空间，并表示威灵顿正积极布局在华业务，以期与威灵顿香港、威灵顿新加坡团队联动，通过挖掘中国市场潜力，共同造福全球客户。

 

以下为演讲全文。

 

 

 

 

我是威灵顿投资管理公司总裁Stephen Klar。威灵顿是世界上最大的独立投资管理公司之一，业务遍及六十多个国家，为2,400家机构客户的数百万受益人管理着超过1.4万亿美元的资产，涉及养老金、捐赠基金、基金会、保险公司、家族企业、零售基金发起人和全球财富管理公司。

 

今天，我想就影响资产管理行业发展的四大全球长期趋势分享几点看法，谈谈我们如何应对这些趋势，以及它们对中国资产管理行业的潜在影响。具体如下：

 

一、以亚洲及中国为代表，全球私人财富管理需求的长期增长；

 

二、主动管理和另类投资方案对实现客户投资目标的重要性；

 

三、在长期客户投资组合内有意纳入可持续性和气候变化因素；

 

四、全球视角下，中国资本市场独居吸引力的回报机会。

 

一、私人财富的长期增长

全球私人财富是资产管理行业中规模最大、增长最快的板块之一。2020年，全球高净值个人财富增幅超7%，据计算已达近80万亿美元。在中国，私人财富的积累则更为迅速，复合年增长率为20%。

 

个人财富的长期增长为资产管理公司帮助家族实现其特定的投资目标创造了重要机会。面对这个机会，资产管理机构绝不能“一刀切”，因为家族情况不同，需求各异。例如，某类客户正处于注重财富保值和财富代际传承的阶段，可能正寻求收入导向、波动较小的退休解决方案。另一类则可能是寻求创造更多财富的创业者，其所处的人生阶段能够承受波动性更大、回报率更高的投资策略。

 

作为全球最大的投资顾问机构之一，我们与包括私人银行、保险公司和资产管理公司在内的财富管理客户密切合作，开发能满足各种客户需求不断变化的产品。通过发挥我们在权益、固定收益、多元资产、另类投资方案和私募领域的专业能力，我们的业务托管范围覆盖 “一揽子”多管理人投资组合，以涵盖包括多种权益及固定收益组合的更广泛受托责任。

 

中国无疑将走出自己的发展道路，但要推动中国资产管理市场的不断发展和深化，关键是要找到适合中国投资者独特需求的投资解决方案。

 

二、主动管理和另类投资方案

过去十年，股票和债券市场回报还不错。没人知道未来会发生什么。以史为鉴，投资者不宜假设未来十年市场回报率仍将保持出色。因此，在实现投资目标的过程中，主动管理产生的回报可能更为关键。此外，如能将集中度高的主题投资策略或流动性强的另类投资方案等差异化主动型回报，与私募股权、债务和房地产策略相结合，将对主动型管理公司在其为客户创造具有吸引力的风险调整后回报的过程中提供机会。

 

随着我们逐渐摆脱疫情影响中稳步前进，市场仍存许多不确定性。通胀是否仍将像目前这么棘手？全球经济增长是否足以使我们摆脱滞胀？各行业、各国和不同市场应如何调整，以适应颠覆全球众多行业的技术、科学与医疗水平的加速进步？

 

为跟上市场快速变化的步伐，我们继续投资于“主动管理未来”，结合数据科学技术，立足于对企业和政府债券的深入基本面研究，利用先进技术对产生投资设想、构建投资组合与风险管理的各个方面提供帮助。我们相信，基本面研究的艺术魅力与量化工具的理性洞见相结合，对于洞察复杂世界的投资先机至关重要。很多私人企业仍选择不上市，我们也会把握这个趋势，扩大我们在非上市资产的投资能力，并通过我们的资源网络，运用全球投资平台深入的行业宏观研究成果，构建非上市资产的投资组合。

 

三、可持续投资与气候变化

公众对可持续投资的日益重视，正促使资本市场和客户对其资产管理公司的期望发生重大变化。欧洲一直走在重视可持续发展的前沿，在实施投资组合指南和监管改革方面大幅推进，亚洲也正迅速跟进，针对上市公司和投资基金出台了严格的信息披露要求。美国正处于拥抱可持续发展的早期阶段，但全球携手前行的方向是一致的，我们认为这是一个长期趋势。我们相信，ESG将成为任何长期投资理论的重要组成部分，定会对股价及长期回报潜力产生影响。主动型资产管理公司最适合与众多企业进行有效沟通，共同实现与高额投资回报目标相一致的长期可持续发展。在追求投资回报方面，我们并未将ESG视为阻碍，而是要利用它来协同实现投资收益。

 

具体到气候本身，我们已与伍德威尔气候变化研究中心建立气候研究合作伙伴关系，以绘制全球自然风险分布图，评估自然风险对我们受托投资标的及地区的潜在影响，涵盖了炎热、干旱、野火、飓风、洪水、水源、空气质量和海平面等气候指标。

 

2020年12月，威灵顿成为净零碳排放资产管理人倡议的创始成员及签署方。通过该倡议，我们与客户探讨如何将净零碳排放目标纳入其投资组合。为此，我们正将自然气候风险和碳排放数据以及基金经理所掌握的其他企业财务相关信息纳入现行的数据表格。我们还与企业合作，科学地制定了气候过渡行动计划。

 

最后，我们推出了专门侧重于向创新型私营和上市公司配置资本的投资组合，因为这些公司的核心产品和服务能够应对全球重大气候挑战。

 

四、投资中国

为成功实现客户的投资目标，我们致力于在全球所有资本市场寻找机会。作为全球规模最大、增长最快、最具活力的市场之一，中国境内A股和债券市场为全球投资者提供了不可忽视的丰富投资机会。资本市场本质上具有周期性和波动性。尽管中国市场近期出现了些许波动，但不能忽视中国市场的长期吸引力。我们相信，投资中国仍将是全球投资机会的重要组成部分，并将在2022年及今后带来具有吸引力的投资机会。对我们的客户而言，许多中国公司，其技能、实力、产品及增长前景是非常有吸引力的权益类投资标的。在固定收益方面，中国标的也有着相对较高的收益率，对寻求营收和利润的全球投资者也颇具吸引力。

 

我们将继续拓展中国投研团队，并保持我们全球客户投资于包括全球性综合投资组合和中国独立投资组合在内的中国股债标的。

 

威灵顿于2020年开设上海办事处，并将继续致力于扩大我们的在华业务。中国资本市场的日益开放，包括所有制改革、外资持股比例增加以及本土资产管理行业的全面成熟，正为全球资产管理公司创造更有利的条件。我们的目标是继续扩大我们在上海、香港和新加坡的投资团队，代表全球所有客户深化我们在中国市场的投资，并在中国申请私募基金管理牌照。

 

结语

最后我想说，全球和中国的资产管理行业前景光明。我们在为个人和机构客户提供独特的服务方面还有很多机会。我期待威灵顿的积极参与，能共同促进客户、资产管理公司和资本市场的繁荣发展。我们必须拥抱不确定性和波动性，虽然前路充满艰辛，但若我们合力互助，就一定有取得成功的能力与决心。

 

让我们在通往未来之路上携手同行！

 

 

 

 

Speech at GAMF 2022

Shanghai Summit

 

Stephen Klar

 

I am Stephen Klar, President of Wellington Management, one of the world's largest independent investment management firms. Wellington manages over $1.4 trillion in assets for 2,400 clients and millions of beneficiaries across pensions, endowments and foundations, insurers, family offices, retail fund sponsors, and global wealth managers located in over 60 countries.

 

Today, I'd like to share some perspectives on 4 long term global trends that are shaping the asset management industry, a little about how we are addressing them and their potential implications for the China asset management industry specifically:

 

1. The secular growth of private wealth globally, in Asia and China most notably;

 

2. The importance of active management and alternatives to achieving clients' investment objectives;

 

3. The intentional integration of sustainability and climate change into long term client portfolios;

 

4. The attractive return opportunities in Chinese capital markets and their importance to the global opportunity set available to investors.

 

1. Secular Growth of Private Wealth

Global private wealth is one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the asset management industry. In 2020, global high net worth individual wealth grew by over 7%, reaching nearly US$80 trillion according to some measures. In China, the accumulation of private wealth is even more rapid, growing at a compound annual rate of 20%.

 

This secular growth in personal wealth has created an important opportunity for asset managers to help these families achieve their specific investment objectives. It is by no means a "one size fits all" approach as the needs of families will vary. For example, some clients are at a stage of life where they are focused on wealth preservation and intergenerational wealth transfer and may be seeking income oriented, lower volatility retirement solutions. Others are entrepreneurs seeking to build more wealth, and having a time horizon that allows for more volatile, higher returning investment strategies.

 

As one of the world's largest investment sub-advisors, we partner closely with our wealth management clients including private banks, insurance companies, and asset management firms to develop offerings that meet the varied and evolving needs of their client base. Leveraging our extensive array of capabilities across equity, fixed income, multi assets, alternatives and privates, our mandates range from managing one "sleeve" of a multi manager portfolio to broad responsibility for an entire investment portfolio that may blend multiple equity and fixed income portfolios together.

 

China will no doubt take its own path but generating investment solutions tailored to the unique needs of Chinese families will be critical to the ongoing evolution and deepening of the Chinese asset management market.

 

2. Active and Alternatives

We have experienced a decade of excellent returns from equity and bond markets. No one knows what lies ahead, but history suggests that beneficiaries should not presume a similar level of market returns in the decade ahead. As a result, active management returns are likely to be even more critical in achieving the investment objectives needed for beneficiaries. In addition, the ability to combine differentiated active return streams, such as highly concentrated, thematic strategies or liquid alternatives, with private equity, debt and real estate strategies, creates the opportunity for active managers to generate attractive risk adjusted returns for clients.

 

As we steadily move forward from a once in a hundred years pandemic, there are many market uncertainties still to play out, will inflation be as sticky as it currently looks? Will global economic growth be sufficient to keep us out of a stagflationary environment? How will sectors, countries and markets adjust to the acceleration of technological, scientific, and medical advancements disrupting numerous industries globally?

 

To keep pace with rapidly evolving markets, we continue to invest in the "Future of Active Management", grounded in deep fundamental research of companies and government bonds combined with data science and technology to assist in every aspect of idea generation, portfolio construction and risk management. We believe that successfully marrying the art of fundamental research with the science of quantitative tools and insights will be critical to generating insights in a more complex world. We are also expanding our capabilities to take advantage of the many companies that are staying private longer and building privates portfolios that take advantage of our sourcing networks, and our deep sector and macro research across our global investment platform.

 

3. Sustainable Investing and Climate Change

The increased focus on sustainable investing is driving important changes in capital markets and clients' expectations from their asset managers. Europe has been at the forefront of the sustainability focus and is furthest advanced in implementing portfolio guidelines and regulatory changes, and Asia is following quickly in putting in place strong disclosure requirements for listed companies and investment funds. The US is in earlier phases of embracing sustainability but the direction of travel globally is consistent, and we believe that this is a secular, long term trend. We believe that ESG considerations are an important part of any long term investment thesis and do have an impact on stock prices and return potential over the long term. Active managers are best positioned to engage effectively with companies to achieve long term sustainability goals that are consistent with strong investment returns. We don't see ESG as concessionary but as synergistic to the pursuit of investment returns.

 

With respect to climate specifically, we have entered a climate research partnership with the Woodwell Institute to map physical risks globally and assess their potential impact on the companies and territories we invest in on behalf of our clients, covering  heat, drought, wildfire, hurricanes, floods, access to water, air quality and sea level.

 

In December 2020, Wellington became a founding member and signatory to the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAMI) where we are engaging with our clients to consider how to integrate net zero goals into their portfolios. As part of that effort, we are incorporating physical climate risk and carbon emissions data into dashboards portfolio managers use, along with other financial information they have on companies. We are also engaging with companies and working with them on climate transition plans grounded in science based targets.

 

Lastly, we have launched portfolios specifically focused on allocating capital to innovative private and public companies whose core products and services address some of the world's major climate challenges.

 

4. Investing in China

To successfully meet our clients' investment objectives, we seek to find opportunities across all capital markets globally. As one of the largest, fastest growing, and most dynamic markets globally, China A onshore equity and bond markets present a rich set of investment opportunities that all global investors must consider. Capital markets are by nature cyclical and volatile, and the more challenging performance of Chinese markets recently must be put in context of the attractive long term opportunities they continue to represent. We believe that investing in China will remain a critical part of all global investors' opportunity set and will present attractive investment opportunities in 2022 and beyond. There are numerous Chinese companies whose skills, capabilities, products and growth prospects represent very attractive equity investments for our clients. In fixed income, China's relatively high yields are attractive to global investors seeking income and yield.

 

We continue to grow our China research and portfolio management teams and engage our clients globally on investing in Chinese stocks and bonds, both in integrated global portfolios and standalone China portfolios.

 

Wellington opened its Shanghai office in 2020 and continues to be committed to expanding our presence in China. The increasing liberalization of Chinese capital markets, including ownership reforms, quota increases, and the overall maturation of the local asset management industry, is creating more favorable conditions for global asset managers. Our goal is to continue to grow our investment teams in Shanghai, HK, and Singapore, to deepen our investments in Chinese markets on behalf of all our clients globally, and to obtain approval to launch a Private Fund Management Business in China.

 

Conclusion

In closing, the future is bright for the global and Chinese asset management industry. There are many opportunities to serve retail and institutional clients distinctively and for clients, asset managers, and capital markets to thrive together. Uncertainty and volatility must be embraced; and we will no doubt have hurdles to overcome; but we have the collective ability and determination to succeed. 

 

We look forward to the journey together!

 

       

全球财富管理论坛

全球财富管理论坛是在金融开放背景下，为顺应全球资产管理行业发展与中国资产管理行业转型需求，由清华大学经济管理学院、孙冶方经济科学基金会、中国财富管理50人论坛联合发起成立的一个国际性交流平台组织，论坛旨在构建一个汇聚全球资产拥有者和管理者、监管部门和市场代表的长期对话沟通平台，为国内外资产管理机构搭建交流与合作的桥梁。