EDHEC is working with Morgan Stanley to create an alternative management research chair, "Financial Engineering and Global Alternative Portfolios for Institutional Investors."

EDHEC's Risk and Asset Management Research Centre and Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) have launched the newly created research chair, "Financial Engineering and Global Alternative Portfolios for Institutional Investors." The chair will be managed by a joint MSIM/EDHEC committee and will work on a three-year research programme.

Led by its Research Director, Lionel Martellini, EDHEC's Risk and Asset Management Research Centre team will work on new forms of value-creating financial innovation based on alternative solutions for institutional portfolios. The study will explore whether alternative investment strategies, such as hedge funds, commodities, real estate and private equity, may be usefully included in both the core and the satellite components of a performance-seeking portfolio. It will also look at whether these strategies can potentially bring beta and alpha benefits, keeping in mind the need for an in-depth assessment of their impact on relative and absolute risk budgets.

The initial research project focuses on the design of dedicated financial engineering techniques that will provide sound risk budget management when alternative investment strategies are introduced into institutional investors' portfolios.

The research findings will be presented at the second annual MSIM Alternative Management conference to be held on 23 October 2008 in Paris, and during the EDHEC Alternative Investment Days that will take place at the ExCel Conference Centre in London on 9 and 10 December 2008. In line with EDHEC's Research for Business* philosophy, the findings of the Financial Engineering and Global Alternative Portfolios for Institutional Investors research chair will be widely disseminated to financial professionals, notably via the dedicated EDHEC Risk and Asset Management Research Centre website, www.edhec-risk.com, and the conferences organised by EDHEC.

Contacts :

Carolyn Essid, EDHEC : Phone : +33 (0)4 93 18 78 24 - E-mail : carolyn.essid@edhec-risk.com

Alyson D'Ambrisi, Morgan Stanley : Phone: +44 (0) 20 7425 8470 - E-mail : alyson.dambrisi@morganstanley.com

Jérôme Goaër, Finincom : Phone: +33 (0)1 40 71 32 95 - E-mail : j.goaer@finincom.com