All Alternatives articles – Page 150
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News
Italy to raise tax on “golden pensions”
ITALY - The tax rate on top managers’ so-called “golden pensions” - which can be as high as 516 euro a day - will be increased from three to four per cent, welfare minister Roberto Maroni has said.
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Features
Attracting novice investors
Since the beginning of 2004 two new investment companies operating as funds of hedge funds (FOHFs) have become listed on the London Stock Exchange, swelling the progress of a new theme in institutional hedge fund investment in the UK. Though the international universe of hedge funds, whether single strategy or ...
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Features
An awkward bedfellow
Many defined benefit (DB) pension schemes are seeking ways to regain a fully funded status by increasing contributions and maximising investment returns. However, they are also concerned about controlling risk and ensuring that contribution levels are kept under control. Most schemes cannot afford to move to a ‘low risk’ 100% ...
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Features
Building an index of indices
The chief obstacle to the institutionalisation of hedge funds is the absence of proper performance evaluation. This is conclusion of a recent report from Edhec Risk and Asset Management Research Centre, part of the Edhec Business School, based in Lille and Nice. The problem, the report says, is the lack ...
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Features
Built to fit
In the recent past, much has been written on the looming European pension crisis. In this article we will elaborate on the implications (both direct and indirect) of this crisis for the investment policy of corporate pension funds throughout Europe. A changing regulatory environment, is expected to have direct implications ...
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Features
Explosive growth of credit products
There has been such rapid growth in the market of credit derivatives, it is surely an area that investors are looking at, if not already investing in. The market for these products began in earnest in the mid-1990s. Less than one decade later, it is expected to exceed $4trn (E6trn) ...
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Features
Facing up to hedge funds
The Netherlands has always been fertile soil for the growth of alternative asset classes. Dutch pension funds have a long tradition of private equity investment and are now among the leaders in Continental Europe their use of hedge funds. Industry leaders, like ABP and PGGM, have led the way. These ...
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Features
Hedge funds indexation: does it really make sense?
Barely a day passes without the announcement of another significant mandate from a large institutional investor looking to diversify its portfolio of investments by making an allocation to hedge funds. For example, in April it was announced that Railpen in the UK had plans to invest £600m into hedge funds1, ...
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Features
Handling the mismatches
Matching of assets to liabilities should be the pension fund’s prime concern. For deferred liabilities and pensioners the matching asset class is evidently bonds, but few schemes own bonds with a maturity profile that matches the probable outflows of cash. At the long end there are few bonds available in ...
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Features
Jump in - the water's lovely
European institutional investors are catching up their US counterparts in using hedge funds as a risk diversifier. Although some pension funds, such as the ATP or Tapiola schemes in Denmark and Finland, respectively, are not investing in hedge funds, others are waiting for board approval, such as the Netherland’s Blue ...
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Features
Managing risks using swaps
The recent market environment has proved difficult for Europe’s second tier pension systems – following a bull run in bonds and a painful bear market in equities, funded pension systems have felt the strain over the last few years. The impact of this has varied by market and degree of ...
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Features
PPPs a panacea for pensions?
Equities outperform bonds long-term! Pension funds are for privileged investors as, because of their long-term liablility profiles, they do not need to care about the short-term volatility of equities. This means that pension funds can hold the highest exposure in equities that the individual liability profile of the fund justifies. ...
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Features
Seeing through transparency
A survey conducted last year by Deutsche Bank found that over one-third of hedge-fund investors require managers to provide detailed information about the holdings and risk in their portfolios. Yet, according to an earlier report by Capital Markets Risk Advisors (CMRA) in association with the Alternative Investment Managers Association, while ...
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News
DeAM nabs Schroders' Hillier for Euro equities
UK - Deutsche Asset Management UK has hired Piers Hillier as head of institutional European equities.
