All Alternatives articles – Page 188
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News
Sweden's AP7 looks at alternatives
SWEDEN - The SEK14bn (e1.55bn) national PPM default fund Sjunde AP-fonden (AP7) is currently considering whether it can invest in alternative asset classes under the country’s PPM legislation, according to Peter Norman, managing director at AP7....
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News
BGI Europe's biggest as passive trend rolls on
EUROPE – Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has retained the top slot as Europe’s largest pensions asset manager, recording annual growth of $8bn in assets from $107bn to just over $115bn, according to consultant William M.Mercer’s figures for 2000-2001....
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News
Swiss hedge fund player targets Scandinavia
Hilton Supra, former marketing director for Europe at Axa Rosenberg Investment Managers, has joined specialist Swiss asset manager EIM Group as senior marketing manager for Scandinavia....
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News
87% rise in UK pensions allocation to venture
UK – Investment by UK pension funds in venture capital rocketed by 87% over the year 2000 to reach a level of £817m, according to the British Venture Capital Association’s (BVCA) annual investment activity report....
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News
SEB name change could herald Swedbank merger
SWEDEN – As a prelude to a possible merger between Swedish banks, Svenska Enskilda Banken (SEB) and FöreningsSparbanken (Swedbank), the former has removed paragraph 12 from its articles of association, which stated that the bank could not change its name – a precursor to any merger deal....
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News
Dutch Origin fund in huge investment restructure
NETHERLANDS – The e400m Utrecht based pension fund of Dutch communications group Origin - the former IT subsidiary of electronics group Phillips - has undergone a mammoth investment restructuring, almost halving its exposure to Phillips owned asset manager Schootse Poort in favour of a range of specialist mandates....
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News
Robeco to launch hedge fund of funds product
NETHERLANDS – Rotterdam based Robeco Alternative Investments is to launch a hedge fund multi-manager structure in September/October this year, to meet institutional and private client demand for guaranteed products linked to hedge funds...
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Features
An asset class in their own right?
Given the use of derivatives it is an interesting question to consider whether derivatives should be considered as an asset class in their own right. Derivatives are all about managing risk. They give a financial exposure to the underlying asset or assets on which they are based. There is also ...
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Features
Attitudes are changing
Pension funds are beginning to use derivatives more and more, particularly for asset allocation purposes, hedging their positions and portfolio transitions. Though the use of derivatives is now more common in the UK and the Netherlands, their use across Europe appears to be gaining acceptance. Trevor Robinson of Trevor Robinson ...
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Features
No need to shy away
European pension funds are not the most prolific users of derivatives. However, for some, options, futures and swaps form an integral part of the asset management process. This article provides a broad overview of the use of derivative instruments in several European markets and, more importantly, how these instruments can ...
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Features
A useful tool, but handle with care
Pension fund trustees increasingly agree that derivatives, used correctly and with adequate controls, can provide benefits to their funds by lowering costs and allowing for the efficient implementation of investment strategies. At times, they can also boost performance and lower risk. Paul Myners, chairman of Gartmore Investment Management, suggests that ...
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Features
Innovative products enliven the market
The major trend in European derivatives has been the degree of innovation in terms of the listed derivatives markets. This ranges from the initiatives into single stock futures as developed by the London International Financial Futures & Options Exchange (Liffe), which include both domestic and a range of European and ...
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Features
Obtaining fair value for money
All investment transactions are the result of the interplay between the investment fundamentals of risk, return and cost. Transacting derivative deals enables the risk and return characteristics of portfolios to be altered and costs to be controlled or reduced. The fact that, by definition, the value of a derivative is ...
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Features
Never mind the quality, feel the width
In times gone by, in a market that has long since evolved, there was just one way to tell whether an institution was getting value for money from its forex provider. Luckily for the investor, it was a very simple measure of value, easily observed. This universal metric was, of ...
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Features
Structures to tame hedge funds
Pension professionals are expending considerable amounts of energy on alternative investments, and particularly that category labelled ‘hedge funds’, at a time when the traditional asset mixes of equity, bonds and property are failing to deliver the required level of return and are becoming increasingly correlated. However, even if hedge funds ...
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Features
Not yet ready to go naked
On the face of it, there are few businesses that should be more enthusiastic about derivatives than the asset management industry. Corporate use of derivatives, typically to protect earnings, remains controversial: do shareholders really want to be ‘protected’ from volatile earnings drivers, or is the promise of higher risks and ...
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Features
Have a robust policy
If derivatives are used directly by a pension fund carrying out its own management, the fund should have clear policy guidelines on their use. Similarly, to obtain permission to deal in derivatives for a client, an investment manager should clearly define their policy. This would need to cover such criteria ...
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News
PGGM leading strategist retires
NETHERLANDS – Marinus Keijzer, an adviser to the director of investments at Zeist based NLG110bn (e50bn) Dutch superfund PGGM is to take early retirement from the scheme....
