Navigating the new world

Times are challenging for institutional investors around the world.

Headlines and boardroom discussions are currently dominated by the aftershocks of COVID-19 which has also ushered in global negative or zero percent interest rates, unprecedented stimulatory fiscal and monetary policies, a simmering trade war, significant socio-economic risks and ongoing digital and technological disruption.

Yet despite this maelstrom, at QIC we remain optimistic about our shared, long-term future. In our latest QIC Red Paper, Navigating the New World: Investment Strategies for the Low-Yield Environment, we examine potential solutions Across, Between and Within portfolio asset classes which can help investors capture portfolio goals for both their stakeholders and the communities in which they operate.

In this paper we assess:

• The value across asset classes which can be added by whole of portfolio overlay strategies;
• We also explore the evolution within traditional asset classes; and
• The growing interest in new assets falling between asset classes and that are referred to as White Space.

While these strategies and assets may not neatly fit in traditional asset class definitions, we believe they can deliver resilient investment outcomes, often with a shared societal value, for long-term institutional investors in a “Lower for Longer” world.