Investing October 14, 2003

MSCI: Hedge Funds Harvest 1.6% Gain in September

October 14, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Preliminary results show the MSCI Hedge Fund Composite Index gained 1.6% in September.
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With 64% of the funds reporting, the Composite’s gain is higher than August’s 0.9% (See  Hedge Funds Return 0.94% in August ) and the MSCI World Equity Index, which up 0.5%.  For the year, the Composite index is up 11.1%, underperforming its World counterpart’s 14.8% return, according to a MSCI news release.

Compared to the World Sovereign Debt Index, which returned a 5.7% gain in September, the Composite index was worse for the month.  For the year, the World Sovereign Debt Index has now returned 9.3%.

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Group Report

September’s largest process group gainer, based on 54% of funds reporting, was the Multi-Process Group, up 2.3%.   Multi-Process, strategies that focus on spread relationships between pricing components of financial assets or commodities, has now returned 15.2% year-to-date.

The remain four indexes also posted positive monthly returns, lead by the Security Selection and Specialist Credit Indices’ 1.8%-September returns.   Security Selection, those managers who combine long positions and short sales with the aim of benefiting from their ability in selecting investments while offsetting systematic market risks, has now returned 14% year to date on a 63% reporting rate while Specialist Credit, those funds that seek to lend to credit-sensitive issuers, has now returned 15.7% year to date based on 59% of funds reporting.

Rounding out the list was a 1.6% gain notched by the Relative Value Index and a 1.1% September return posted by the Directional Trading Index. With 74% of funds reporting, Directional Trading, strategies based upon speculating on the direction of market prices of currencies, commodities, equities, and bonds in the futures and cash markets, is up 7.8% year to date.  Similarly, Relative Value is also positive for the year 6.2%, with 62% of funds reporting.

The MSCI Hedge Fund Indices are composed of more than 190 indices. More than 1,800 hedge funds have agreed to participate in the database and there are over 1,600 hedge funds currently in the MSCI Hedge Fund Indices and Database.

Administration October 12, 2003

Employee Stock Options Grants at Life Sciences Companies Reduced by 30%

December 10, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com)— On average, in the last fiscal year, stock options at life sciences companies equaled 2.6% of the company's total shares outstanding, a decrease from the 3.3% average recorded for the previous three years, according to the Presidio Pay Advisors - Life Sciences Industry Compensation study.
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Possible reasons cited for this decrease are because legislation has been discussed to expense stock options, companies are finding other equity incentives to offer to employees, as only 27% of executives included in the study received equity incentives in the form of restricted stock.

The study also includes information on:

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  • equity compensation
  • overhang and run rates
  • non-shareholder-approved plans
  • evergreen plans and additional share requests   
  • ownership levels for executives and outside directors      
  • executive compensation
  • Top Six Positions: Median Pay Levels and Prevalence         
  • CEO compensation: by revenue size and industry sector
  • board of director compensation
  • director compensation
  • committee compensation

Presidio Pay Advisors – Life Sciences Industry Compensation study included data on stock option and equity incentive practices and Executive and Board of Director compensation levels in over 60 companies within the Dow Jones Biotechnology Index.

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