About John Cheigh
Jon Cheigh, President and Chief Investment Officer at Cohen & Steers, appeared on NYSE TV Live on February 17, 2025, to discuss the firm's launch of three new active exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on real estate, preferred securities, and natural resource equities. Cheigh stated that the firm, which he described as a specialist asset manager in real assets and alternative income since 1986, had not previously offered active ETFs. He said the launch was in response to investor demand and that the firm aims to offer a more global opportunity set than existing strategies.
Cheigh advised investors to focus on long-term portfolio positioning rather than short-term market movements, citing the firm's research on "FOMO Reversals of Fortune" which he said shows that following recent winners is not a good strategy. He characterized valuations in real estate, natural resource equities, and preferreds as having repriced and become attractive, while noting that U.S. equities have become less attractive after strong recent performance. Cheigh also commented that the recent rise in interest rates has hurt some of the firm's asset classes but is now in the past, and that factors such as immigration and tariffs are not expected to have significant negative impacts on real estate, infrastructure, or preferred securities.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from John Cheigh's recent appearances.
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Transcript (11 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
Joining me now to break it all down is John Cheigh. He is the president and chief investment officer at Cohen & Steers. John, it's great to have you with us in studio.
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John Cheigh0:08
It's great to be here at Trinity, thank you so much for having me here, particularly on this day when we're launching three new exciting active ETFs.
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Interviewer0:18
Absolutely. So let's dive into the news. We have to lead with the news, we can't bury the lead here. Talk to me about this announcement, how it's going to shape the broader landscape and how it's going to impact investors.
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John Cheigh0:29
Yeah, so look, for those that don't know, Cohen & Steers is a specialist asset manager really focused on real assets and alternative income. We've been doing this since 1986, and we also just celebrated our 20-year anniversary being a public company. We're real market leaders in these areas. Investors know us, but we haven't had active ETFs before. For a lot of investors, they've said, 'Cohen & Steers, we love what you do, but we'd love to see it in an active ETF form.' So that's why we're so excited to be able to address the market with these three new active ETFs in areas that we're very known for: real estate, preferreds, and natural resource equities.
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Interviewer1:16
And with the new administration and microeconomic environment that we're currently living in, how are you approaching advertising for your clients and what are the key trends that are shaping your outlook?
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John Cheigh1:26
Yeah, so look, I'd say the most important thing I tell people is don't worry about tomorrow or next week, because the reality is no investor is going to be able to get the next five days correct. So we want our investors to focus on where they want their portfolio to be the next two, five, ten years. The worst thing they can do is just look back at what's worked in the last five years. We've done research, a paper called 'FOMO: Reversals of Fortune,' and there's a perfect track record that if you just look back over the last ten years and try to follow it, that's not a good solution. Instead, focus on where valuations are attractive. Places like real estate, natural resource equities, and preferreds — we're launching in these areas because we think valuations have repriced, and so the opportunity for investors, ETFs or not, is very, very attractive. As we all know, every day equities have done well, particularly in the US over the last three to five years, but valuations have gotten less attractive. So for us, we want to put things out there where it's not about how they've done the last five years, it's about what we think they can deliver given where valuations are.
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Interviewer2:48
John, I want to drill down a little bit on this, especially when it comes to the new suite of active ETFs that you just launched. What would you say sets it apart from what's currently out there on the market? What makes your approach so unique and why should investors pay attention?
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John Cheigh3:01
Sure. So again, we're doing real estate, preferreds, and natural resource equities. The first thing is we have a long-term track record of delivering outperformance in these areas. This is not like large cap equities where there's a lot of data that says active managers haven't delivered. These are areas where we, and active managers, but we in particular, have delivered outperformance, alpha, which ultimately is what matters for investors. So that's the first thing. The second thing is for our US and preferred strategies, it's going to be a broader universe than what currently exists for our investors. It's not going to be just a US-centric strategy; it's going to have a more global opportunity set. We're a firm that has big investment teams, and we feel like those are global opportunities that we can bring to end investors.
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Interviewer3:57
Speaking of opportunities, obviously with opportunities come some challenges. What should investors be on the lookout for the rest of 2025? What should they be prioritizing?
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John Cheigh4:07
Sure. So I think we're all following all the time whether it's interest rates or tariffs, immigration, lots of policy moves here or there, and of course different factors to consider are going to impact different kinds of asset classes. I'd say the big rise in interest rates that's happened the last few years has hurt some of our asset classes maybe more than others. So that's in the rearview mirror. But things like immigration and tariffs, which of course we all follow, the reality is for what we do, those are not things that are going to have big negative impacts for things like real estate or infrastructure or preferreds. So those are all things I think people need to consider, but some are going to impact certain asset classes and sectors more than others.
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Interviewer5:00
Well, it's something that we need to be paying close attention to. Thank you so much again, John Cheigh. He is the chief investment officer at Cohen & Steers.
