Asset allocators

Thierry Callault,

head of strategy,

Banque du Louvre

Based in: Paris, France

“In our last update we were optimistic on equities, driven by stock rallies and earnings recoveries. We will keep that stance, staying invested 50-50 equities and bonds. Regarding our manager breakdown, we still believe in our overweight position in high yield and corporates in the US. But in order to add a European government bond component in case of German deflation, we have brought in GoFx Asset Management.”

Guy Ester,

head of manager selection,

Insinger de Beaufort

Based in: Amsterdam,

The Netherlands “Given high market volatility we have kept the portfolio unchanged. We expect a brighter outlook for equities either late this year or the beginning of next year. Our main instrument is still the IdB Zeus (OS) Fund. We maintained our 30 per cent allocation to this fund as we still feel that absolute return managers will be most able to perform successfully in current conditions.”

Harald Schuell,

fund manager,

Epicon Investment

Based in: Vienna, Austria “Following the latest stock market rally we have chosen to realise profits and switch into less volatile value funds. We have also replaced our emerging markets equity holding in the ABN Amro fund with a stake in the First State Global Emerging Markets fund. We have substituted the Hypo Euro Konvergenz fund with the less aggressive Oppenheim Bond Euro Opportunities fund.”