Liam Spillane

Manulife Europe is a long-term, growth and income-oriented manager which invests through their funds in global equity, debt and alternative investments across market caps. They share research and management with other Manulife divisions and perform in-house fundamental research, supplemented by external analysts and employ top-down and bottom-up approaches to make investments.

AIGSL is an active, research-oriented manager which invests in all major asset classes including equity, fixed-income, real estate and cash. They also have expertise in SRI and alternative investments. The firm manages equity funds and fixed-income funds, following long-only and hedged strategies. They specialize in UK-related markets and share research globally throughout Aviva divisions. AIGSL employs a bottom-up investment process based on fundamental financial analysis and valuation and informed by top-down macro-economic research. They select stock by focusing on favorable industry sectors and utilize a dividend discount model. Determinant criteria include return on assets, price-to-book ratio and a low historical price-to-earnings ratio.

FIM-UK is an active investment manager with a growth-oriented investment style. The firm specializes in European small-cap equity, Asian and emerging market equity, multi-management, emerging market bonds and global bonds. Their investment approach is bottom-up and based on fundamental research and in-depth knowledge of the markets in which they specialize. Proprietary research is shared within the Fortis Investments global network, and combines quantitative and qualitative analysis. Research focuses on valuation, assessing asset quality and identifying catalysts likely to unlock value. Fortis Investments believes that performances depend more on sector allocation than on regional allocation. They seek to identify major industry themes and value drivers within sectors. They favor sector leaders representing quality among their peers. They also invest in value and high-yield stocks. Their investment decisions are based on a blend of company and sector views with macroeconomic analysis. Fortis Investments emphasizes accountability. Within the allocation framework defined at the global level, small teams of portfolio managers operate autonomously under the supervision of the asset class CIO. The firm's products are managed using a core model portfolio, customized for each client.

FFTW-UK is an active manager which aims to provide capital stability and consistent returns for clients by combining multiple, diversifying alpha strategies sourced across a broad global opportunity set. They believe that asset allocation is best conducted by a dedicated top-down decision-making team that is able to compare relative value opportunities across all fixed-income asset classes simultaneously, while bottom-up security selection decisions are best left to specialist managers for each asset class. The firm believes that specialized investment teams enable better decision making and ensure that risk management is integrated throughout their investment process. They also believe that successful management of fixed-income portfolios is highly dependent upon sophisticated risk management practices and risk tools. FFTW-UK combines judgmental and quantitative alpha strategies, aiming to diversify returns, and generate a better risk-adjusted return profile. Their independent risk management team works closely with investment teams to understand their strategies and goals, focusing on identifying and avoiding unnecessary and unintended risks. In addition, the firm's risk budgeting process enables them to dynamically allocate risk across diversified alpha teams while helping to contain the downside risks that are intrinsic to fixed-income markets.