Breakout sessions
Select four from the following breakouts
Equities
Global infrastructure – an oasis of growth, in a sea of uncertainty
FTF ClearBridge Global Infrastructure Income Fund
Shane Hurst, managing director, portfolio manager
Infrastructure continues to benefit from long-term growth drivers and offers steady income for investors. Clean energy goals now align with energy security and the rising electricity demand driven by AI. Capital investment remains strong across renewables, grid expansion, nuclear, and natural gas. Shifting supply chains and geopolitical tensions are increasing demand for critical infrastructure. Amid global uncertainty, infrastructure offers a resilient path to sustainable returns.
Stock-driven, not style-driven alpha
Putnam US Large Cap Value Fund | Franklin Templeton
Kelly Loughran, client portfolio manager
How portfolios driven by stock-specific exposures rather than by common factor risks are better able to consistently generate alpha and manage relative downside risk across market environments.
UK equities: the tortoise and the hare
FTF ClearBridge UK Equity Income Fund
Jo Rands, portfolio manager & Ben Russon, co-head UK equities
UK large cap equities are known for their steady, dividend-paying companies but it's a market that offers so much more. Over the past five years, the FTSE All Share Index has delivered an annual total return of over 12%. Yet, despite this, the market is consistently underestimated. The UK offers exceptional value, with strong foundations and favourable conditions for future returns.
Small but mighty UK equity opportunities
FTF ClearBridge UK Mid Cap Fund
Richard Bullas, co-head UK equities & Dan Green, portfolio manager
Small and Mid cap companies have fallen out of favour in recent years. Brexit, covid, the Truss mini-budget and recent uncertainty of government taxation policy have all certainly weighed on the minds of investors. However, instead, we would suggest this period has made many well-run companies both leaner and more versatile. Many balance sheets look healthy with management teams taking shareholder friendly, prudent approaches to balancing their books. The UK opportunity is much more than just a valuation story.
The future is emerging: 65% of global growth and rising!
Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust (TEMIT)
Sri Chandran, equities product specialist
Emerging markets are shaping today's global economy and appear poised to dominate tomorrow's. Sri Chandran asks if your clients are positioned to benefit – or underexposed to global growth.
Will new reforms accelerate India's structural growth?
Murali Yerram, VP, portfolio advisory services
India is about to unveil a new set of reforms to accelerate and sustain domestic growth in face of high US tariffs. Will reforms on taxes, deregulation and divestment accelerate job creation? Will India dare deregulate Electricity and Freight tariffs?
The under-appreciated asset class: accessing the opportunity set in US small caps
FTGF Royce US Small Cap Opportunity Fund
Brendan Hartman, portfolio manager
US small caps have lagged their large cap cousins in recent years, resulting in historically attractive relative valuations. Yet a robust economic backdrop and accelerating earnings growth could herald a much stronger period for the asset class.
Insight to alpha: efficient allocation to active management
Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions
Nick Hooten, CFA, head of client investment solutions
Are you getting more exposure to the best features of active managers (stock selection) or the worst (allocation to risk factors)? In this breakout session, we will discuss innovative quantitative techniques for isolating exposure to stock selection alpha while mitigating the impacts of risk factors. This approach allows us to move past the limitations and inefficiencies of conventional methods by combining multiple sources of uncorrelated value-add while targeting explicit exposures to active risk, factors, and industries.
The private equity secondary market has grown enormously in recent years. Owners of private equity assets facing a notable slowdown in exits have turned to the secondary marketplace as an important alternative source of much-needed liquidity.
Meanwhile, both private and institutional investors have dedicated significant capital to the leading secondary buyers, recognising the many attractive benefits of including secondary fund exposure within a portfolio. This session will cover recent market trends and latest projections, as well as outlining the most important features of a secondary fund investment.
Is European commercial real estate priced to value? How effective is it as an income strategy and inflation hedge?
European commercial real estate
Mariel Sullivan, portfolio management
European commercial real estate is presenting fresh opportunities after a period of repricing, during which values have fallen 20–30% or more in some markets. Meanwhile, property fundamentals remain strong, providing investors with a reliable source of income while also acting as a natural hedge against longer-term inflationary pressures—driven by the three D's: Deglobalisation, Decarbonisation, and Demographics. In particular, sectors with structural tailwinds, such as logistics and residential, are well positioned to outperform. Could now be the right time to revisit European property?
A new approach for your core equity allocations
Collateralized loan obligations
Cathy Bevan, head of structured credit and portfolio manager
With lots of investors looking at CLOs for the first time, how should investors think about allocating to the asset class? Should investors look at CLO tranches as both part of their fixed income or private credit allocations, or both? Given the customisable nature of the product there are a variety of options for risk / return and liquidity structure. Secondary markets provide opportunities to take advantage of dislocations while providing liquidity at any point in the investment cycle.
ETFs
Building precision portfolios with single country emerging market ETFs
Lotfi Ladjemi, VP, ETF distribution
Rather than viewing emerging markets as a single, homogenous exposure, there is value in treating each country as distinct, with its own economic drivers, risks, and opportunities. ETFs provide an efficient way to capture these differentiated exposures, allowing investors to construct more precise and resilient portfolios and capture specific opportunities across the EM universe.
Fixed Income
Gilt investing: is there money to be made there now?
David Zahn, SVP head of sustainable investment and European fixed income
The gilt market has seen a volatile time over the past few years, which have demonstrated why active management is paramount. Join us to hear more about the government's fiscal dynamics, the latest developments in the Gilt market and where it should sit within your investment portfolio.
Global Sukuk: built on solid foundations
Dino Kronfol, CIO of Global Sukuk and head of MENA fixed income
With much uncertainty surrounding key economic, financial, and geopolitical risk factors, Global Sukuk markets offer an attractive defensive proposition. Dino discusses the latest trends in the trillion-dollar Sukuk market, investment characteristics and the opportunities on offer for global fixed income and faith-based investors.
Emerging Market Debt: Keep calm and carry on
Franklin Emerging Markets Debt Opportunities Hard Currency Fund
Nick Hardingham, SVP, portfolio manager
As investors face heightened uncertainty in advanced economy financial markets through the fallout of shifting trade and geopolitical orders, do developing market economies represent a relative safe haven? Emerging Market Debt offers access to a dynamic and diverse set of countries and companies, which are exhibiting strong growth and improving fundamentals driven by orthodox policymaking. This session will offer an opportunity to understand the characteristics of the asset class and discuss the current state of Emerging Market Debt.
