Asset Allocation – Page 265
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Features
Down to earth approach
The electricity sector in Spain is among the industries that historically have always provided a benefit to complement the social security pension system for their employees, and Unión Eléctrica Fenosa is no exception. Until 1993, the company itself was responsible for looking after this complementary benefit which was provided directly ...
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Tax breaks needed to get assets moving
A year ago Spanish companies were working against the clock to meet the government’s deadline for externalising their pension reserves through a pension fund or an insurance contract before the end of the year. The industry, which has been quite since the first pension funds were created at the beginning ...
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Hunting for the bargains out there
Magnifying an existing trend appears to be the consensus view emerging among fixed income fund managers as to the main economic effects of the terrorist attacks and subsequent retaliations. For Matthieu Louanges and his colleagues at Allianz-PIMCO, the markets have moved rapidly – over the space of a few days ...
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Benefits of passive TAA rebalancing
The long-term investor has to make many decisions in response to certain problems within the investment process. One of these pertains to the tactical asset allocation (TAA) decision, which is the portfolio’s current deviation from the strategic asset allocation (SAA). This article considers how decisions on deviations from SAA should ...
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Hefty blow to fragile market
Hurtling towards its fourth recession in 10 years, the Japanese economy is once again in a vulnerable state. And the terrorist attacks on the US on 11 September have dealt the fragile Japanese equities markets a hefty blow, say equity strategists. Export levels have contracted, and this vital source of ...
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Climbing the wall of worry
There is far too much liquidity in the markets but at long last some positive signs beginning to seep into economic data. This is the view of John Dreyer, head of equities at Fortis Investment Management (FIM) in Paris. “We are very happy right now. Basically, the bullish stance that ...
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High-yield at low ebb
The Merrill Lynch High Yield Master Index in September suffered its biggest monthly fall since its inception. It declined –6.42% during the month, taking its third-quarter fall to –6.07%, which in itself was the biggest such drop since the third quarter of 1990. In addition, the spread versus Treasuries at ...
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Markets have embraced 'V' shaped recovery
Equity markets, which plunged in the aftermath of the terrible events of 11 September, have more than made up the lost territory in the past few weeks. On the surface, this suggests that nothing material happened on the day of the attacks. Obviously, this is wrong. The world has changed ...
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Pension funds hit hard by equities slump
The growth of an equity culture has been one of the success stories of continental European investment over the past 10 years, and pension funds have been an important part of this. Funds in Scandinavia, Switzerland and the Netherlands in particular have steadily increased their exposure to equities to take ...
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Ready for European tour?
The announcement by the €552m VKG-CPM Belgian pension fund for doctors, dentists and pharmacists that it had established a new healthcare sector pension fund, ‘Amonis’, with potential membership of 250,000 employees across the country, was not only one of the most significant in the Belgian pension market in recent times, ...
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Eyes fixed on reserve fund
This year has seen a slowdown in the creation of new pension funds in Portugal. The awaited reform of the social security system, the real key to the future development of the industry, has not yet materialised, and although the debate is still alive, so far no major steps have ...
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Ready to go pro-cyclical
Global equity market return has now been negative for six quarters in a row, except for the first quarter of 2001. This means that the downturn is almost as long as the 1973–74 oil crisis. The effects of the attacks are very difficult to quantify but growth forecasts are reduced ...
