Japan's GPIF, world's largest pension fund, falls 3.8 per cent in the year

Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), worth $1.3 trillion, lost 5.3 trillion yen ($51bn) in the year ended March 31st, its worse annual result since the financial crisis.

The loss included a 10.8% loss on domestic equities and 9.6% on global equities. Japanese bonds, which the fund was cutting since October 2014, when it moved allocations more to equities, posted a 4.1% gain, following the Bank of Japan's move to negative interest rates.

The fund has 80% of its holdings in passive investments.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), a retirement savings plan financed by employers and employees in Canada except Quebec, was created in 1966 and is sized at $278 billion as of March 31, 2016, fared better with a 3.4% return with gains in real estate and emerging-market equity private investments.

ARM to be bought by Softbank (IoT Big Driver)

Cambridge, UK based Smartphone-chip-maker ARM Holdings confirmed it is to be bought by Japan's Softbank (a recognised investor in "technology paradigm shifts") for £24bn (or 31bn USD), a premium of 43% on its traded market value. ARM's customers include Samsung and Apple. However, an earlier acquisition of Sprint Telecom is weighing heavy on Softbank's finances who will take a loan from Mizuho Bank to finance the acquisition of ARM for just under one-third of the deal value. Growth in the "Internet of Things" (and the evolution from the mobile Internet) is believed to be one of the prime motivations behind the acquisition.

Worldwide IT Spending Forecast Flat for 2016 - Gartner

Traditional outsourcing growth is being put on the back foot by customizable Internet-based software. This is impacting the profits of "traditional" IT outsourcing businesses like Infosys. Operating margins for both TCS and Infosys is around 25%.

Low Oil Prices Lead to Wealth Fund Consolidation

IPIC (International Petroleum Investment Company), formed in 1984, is planning to merge with Mubadala Development Company PJSC (Private Joint Stock Company), according to the Emirates news agency (WAM).

GAM buys $4bn AuM Cantab Capital Partners for $290m and starts Systematic Unit

Zurich-based GAM (listed on the Swiss stock exchange and which manages around $120 billion) is acquiring Cantab Capital Partners (CCP), a systematic asset management firm.

This acquisition will form the basis of GAM Systematic - a new offering from GAM covering "traditional" long-only investments as well as alternative investing.

In GAM's investor presentation, a Deutsche Bank 2016 Alternative Investment survey was referenced which mentioned a growing allocation to systematic strategies by institutional investors (the presentation also heralds equity market neutral strategies as offering promising performance in 2016). Coupled with GAM's distribution network, there is certainly scope for GAM to ramp up allocations to its systematic funds.

GAM is also planning UCITS versions of CCP's strategies, UCITS being a form of European-regulated fund first introduced in 1985

The question though is whether performance can be maintained and what capacity constraints exist on the strategies pursued by the funds - according to GAM, the funds are scalable and the capacity constraints are low. This is supported by the proportion of Cantab's employees who are involved in strategy research (high), multiple models and multiple traded markets. Cantab has $4bn AuM as of 31 May 2015.

ONS Publishes Q1 2016 CAD Figures for the UK

The ONS has published its Q1 CAD figure of £32.6 billion (3x2=6). This means value of imports exceeds the value of exports.

George Osborne, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2010, expressed an interest in managing the economy to surplus, but has since retracted this aim post Brexit (the "Exchequer" was the medieval English institution responsible for collection of revenues, whose name comes from a physical table used to perform tax calculations).

From Soda to Soya - Coca Cola Makes Unconventional Acquisition from Unilever

Coca Cola is acquiring AdeS, the biggest brand in soy beverage in Latin America for $575m.