CEO Blog: Lest we doth protest too little

By Jack Inglis

Published: 25 May 2016

At AIMA we are not blind to the increasing intensity of negative media coverage of our industry and are committing more energy and resources to combat this.

Recently, hardly a day has gone by without some hostile article about the alternative investment industry appearing in the press. Sometimes this is related to a political story, or a high profile hedge fund redemption (funnily enough we saw very little coverage about new allocations as they rose last year). More recently there has been a lot of focus on performance and fees, such as this column in the Financial Times today or this in The Times of London at the weekend. While the annual hedge fund manager “rich lists” have brought out the usual shouts of outrage. The coverage is not entirely negative however; the FT’s hedge fund correspondent Lindsay Fortado wrote a thoughtful piece about hedge fund activism earlier this week. But there is no denying the coverage is totally out of balance.

Of course none of this is new but the intensified degree of schadenfreude amongst commentators is.

At AIMA we have increased our media responses and engagements materially over the past year. We have built a social media presence which has rapidly gained momentum. We continue to use fact and evidence in refining our key arguments and rebuttals. We have been discussing at length with the AIMA Council and our Communications Committee on how to respond. We commissioned an independent research study which reveals the full extent of this imbalance in reporting: a full media audit (mainstream as well as social) has shown an unusually high percentage of negative articles compared to other industries or individual companies. A public opinion poll as part of this study showed a high unfavourable score for the term “hedge fund” while the same poll showed a net favourable score for the term “alternative investment fund” (seriously!) It may be that ignorance is at play here and it certainly looks that way since the same poll, once exposed to facts and reality, saw the score take a strong swing towards the positive.

Where does this lead us? We will be seeking out more opportunities to discuss our positive messages in the media space. We are more actively rebutting false accusations with fact. We are using education to overcome ignorance. We are working to support the establishment of a UK All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) of MP’s on alternative investment management to provide a forum for rational discussion and understanding rather than political point scoring. We will look to work closely with the MFA on this since two voices are stronger than one. We are going to have to be more proactive than ever before and we are going to have to keep doing it. There is so much more that needs to be done if we are going to achieve the balanced opinion the industry deserves.

Perceptions are slow to change and there may be some who believe it is not worth trying given the current environment. We are advised differently and so are getting out there. We have all the facts at our disposal to support our key messages. I believe in the value proposition of hedge funds; I believe that investors reap substantial benefits from investing in alternatives over the long term and I believe that many of the activities in these funds serve a real purpose in providing alternative means of finance for the global economy.

I welcome any input from our members as we present our case…again and again and again.

 

By Jack Inglis, CEO, AIMA

Jack Inglis

CEO