In Bilbao for a buy-side conference organized by Evenco. I moderated a panel of portfolio managers including Amadeo Alentorn from Merian, Jon Sigurdsen from DNB and Gildas Surray from Groupama.

Amadeo’s presentation included an interesting observation that there has been almost six times as much academic research on U.S. equities versus European stocks and as a result systematic models in Europe offer opportunities for alpha.

Jon argued that ESG opportunities globally were not just socially responsible but increasingly attractive from a valuation point of view.

Gildas focused on the opportunities in fixed income offered by new regulatory requirements that have left some bonds “orphaned” or likely to be called at attractive levels.