The chief investment officers (CIOs) at endowments, foundations, family offices, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds are the leaders in the world of finance. They marshal trillions of dollars on behalf of their institutions and influence how capital flows throughout the world. But these elite investors live outside of the public eye. Across the entire investment industry, few participants understand how these holders of the keys to the kingdom allocate their time and their capital. What’s more, there is no formal training for how to do their work. So how do these influential leaders practice their craft? What skills do they require? What frameworks do they employ? How do they make investment decisions on everything from hiring managers to portfolio construction? For the first time, CAPITAL ALLOCATORS lifts the lid on this opaque corner of the investment landscape. Drawing on interviews from the first 150 episodes of the Capital Allocators podcast, Ted Seides presents the best of the knowledge, practical insights, and advice of the world’s top professional investors. These insights include: - The best practices for interviewing, decision-making, negotiations, leadership, and management. - Investment frameworks across governance, strategy, process, technological innovation, and uncertainty. - The wisest and most impactful quotes from guests on the Capital Allocators podcast. Learn from the likes of the CIOs at the endowments of Princeton and Notre Dame, family offices of Michael Bloomberg and George Soros, pension funds from the State of Florida, CalSTRS, and Canadian CDPQ, sovereign wealth funds of New Zealand and Australia, and many more. CAPITAL ALLOCATORS is the essential new reference manual for current and aspiring CIOs, the money managers that work with them, and everyone allocating a pool of capital.

This is the eBook version of the printed book. An objective framework for assessing management’s effectiveness in deploying capital to increase shareholder value. Shareholders’ lack of direct control over cash flow represents a blind spot in traditional cash flow-based valuation. Management might deploy a company’s free cash flow in many ways that don’t add shareholder value. Management controls the balance sheet, retaining discretion over assets and power to borrow against future cash flows. This document will help investors evaluate management’s critical role as capital allocator.

Seize the competitive edge through intelligent, differentiated capital allocation The intelligent deployment of capital is one of the most effective ways to create long-term value. But despite this, there are very few capital allocation experts on the boards of the largest publicly traded companies, and academic research consistently finds that most firms deploy capital sub-optimally. Capital Allocation aims to educate senior leaders, board members, investors, students, and anyone interested in business on this important topic. Until now very little has been written on capital allocation outside of academia, even though the strategic deployment of excess capital is an increasingly significant source of competitive advantage for many companies. David Giroux, Chief Investment Officer for Equities and Multi-Asset and Head of Investment Strategy at T. Rowe Price, covers the entire gamut of capital allocation issues, including optimal capital structure, capital allocation alternatives, mergers & acquisitions, and special situations. Capital Allocation walks you through this critical topic from beginning to end, including: Stories of companies that allocated capital in ways that created significant shareholder value Several real-life decision-making models you can use for strategically allocating your firm’s capital Guidelines for generating high returns in the long term to build sustainable shareholder wealth Giroux uses academic research, personal experience, and uncomplicated mathematics to reveal approaches and actions that create long-term value. He provides case studies from Kodak, Comcast, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher, General Electric, Microsoft, and others showing how capital allocation has―and hasn’t―worked in real-life situations. And he shows how to use capital allocation to head off possible activist investors. Capital Allocation offers everything you need to know for deploying capital wisely to outperform your competitors over the long term.

Invest responsibly and generate long-term value with the definitive guide to U.S. real estate investing written specifically for non-U.S. investors Whether you’re an institutional investor already active or you’re seeking to enter U.S. commercial real estate markets, The AFIRE Guide to U.S. Real Estate Investing serves as both an invaluable general overview and as an evergreen reference that you’ll return to again and again. From the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE), this new edition has been revised and expanded to bring you fully up to date on the issues and practices they need to build a solid real estate portfolio. It includes a brand-new forward, introduction, and glossary, as well as 35 new or updated chapters divided into four sections: •Section 1: Preparing for Investment into the U.S. covers investment strategy, real estate and tax law, corporate responsibility, industry resources, and professional roles. •Section 2: The Commercial Real Estate Lifecycle explores property due diligence, acquisition, operational management, and disposition of U.S. real estate assets. •Section 3: Finance and Partnerships explains important financial topics, including information for lenders and borrowers, joint ventures, loans and debt, commingled funds, bankruptcy, and Islamic finance. •Section 4: Tax and Regulatory Issues discusses securities laws, the Bank Secrecy Act, the Patriot Act, Office of Foreign Assets Control, taxation, real estate investment trusts (REITs), estates and gifts, agreements, and litigation. Other commercial real estate guides cover individual investors, property flipping, or the technical aspects of taxation and finance. Written just for you, The AFIRE Guide to U.S. Real Estate Investing takes the unique approach of focusing on international business, finance, and real estate as well as institutional long-term, multi-generational investment.

The asset management industry widely assumes that asset growth in a fund automatically follows superior performance. In this paper, we illustrate that while there is truth to this, it is not as straight forward as many would imagine. Performance is important, but is not sufficient to guarantee the asset growth required for business success. For plan sponsors and other allocators of capital, selection of managers who would provide excess return, is a key component of how they seek to meet long-term return objectives. We demonstrate that the best opportunities for gaining alpha within a given investment objective relies on successfully scrutinizing the smaller manager universe.Finally, we confirm previous work which shows that as successful managers grow, their performance diminishes, creating the need for capital allocators to “do it over again”. We propose that the optimal course for asset allocators to follow is a combination of manager selection and equity ownership in smaller asset managers. Further, we believe that as an equity owner, to the extent that one can influence and improve upon the non-performance related aspects of the asset manager's business, the prospects of business success for the asset manager, and return for the investor would be improved.

Helpful, Accessible Guidance for Budding Hedge Funds So You Want to Start a Hedge Fund provides critical lessons and thoughtful insights to those trying to decipher the industry, as well as those seeking to invest in the next generation of high performers. This book foregoes the sensational, headline-grabbing stories about the few billionaire hedge fund managers to reach the top of the field. Instead, it focuses on the much more common travails of start-ups and small investment firms. The successes and failures of a talented group of competitive managers—all highly educated and well trained—show what it takes for managers and allocators to succeed. These accounts include lessons on funding, team development, strategy, performance, and allocation. The hedge fund industry is concentrated in the largest funds, and the big funds are getting bigger. In time, some of these funds will not survive their founders and large sums will get reallocated to a broader selection of different managers. This practical guide outlines the allocation process for fledgling funds, and demonstrates how allocators can avoid pitfalls in their investments. So You Want to Start a Hedge Fund also shows how to: Develop a sound strategy and raise the money you need Gain a real-world perspective about how allocators think and act Structure your team and investment process for success Recognize the patterns of successful start-ups The industry is approaching a significant crossroads. Aggregate growth is slowing and competition is shifting away from industry-wide growth, at the expense of traditional asset classes, to market share capture within the industry. So You Want to Start a Hedge Fund provides guidance for the little funds—the potential future leaders of the industry.