Asset Allocation – Page 274
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Features
Mefop chooses on performance
Make no mistake about it. The Italians are deadly serious about developing their pension funds, adopting the latest and best from outside, but only after a thorough and rigorous analysis as to what they need and how it can serve their needs. This message came through very clearly at the ...
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Features
Currency risk out of the closet
Many may not be familiar with the concept of a ‘currency benchmark’. It results from the explicit recognition of currency risk in a portfolio, and, for example, might be ‘World ex UK equities 100% hedged’. The ‘100% hedged’ is the key point here: the process of choosing benchmarks is in ...
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Features
A European stock exchange
A little over a year ago we were tempted by the prospect of a merger between the Deutsche Börse and the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Well, nothing became of the proposed iX but Euronext, the joint venture between the AEX (from Amsterdam), Brussels Exchanges and the Paris Bourse has gone ...
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Features
Sitting out the summer gloom
Plagued by fears of looming recession, investors in Japanese equities are now playing a waiting game. The reforms outlined by new prime minister Junichiro Koizumi have given the market hope that longstanding problems, particularly in the banking sector, could finally be resolved. But weak economic data are keeping the mood ...
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Features
Incentives needed for pensions push
Despite a volatile round of EU summits over the past six months, the Mediterranean island of Cyprus is still on course for fast track entry into the EU. Nevertheless, pension reform is moving at the same pace as a tourist’s hillside donkey on the holiday hotspot. While a revamp of ...
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Features
Masters of reinvention
Both equity markets and balanced managers took a battering during 2000 and the year to date. Disappointed institutional investors are consequently looking elsewhere for that elusive alpha and, as they review mandates, so the managers in turn reinvent themselves. If it’s not balanced managers portraying themselves as specialists in everything, ...
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Features
Furse’s first 100 days may be the hardest
Presidents and primer ministers are often judged on the impact they make in the first 100 days of their administrations, so why not chief executives? Clara Furse, who fulfils that role at the London Stock Exchange passed the milestone on May 16, so how has she fared? Just as it ...
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Features
Dutch pensions legislation - changes ahead
Dutch civil law states that, in case of a merger or takeover, rights and liabilities coming from a current employment contract have to be transferred to the new company. The company’s assets and liabilities are also transferred. Pension rights, though, are an exception. It has to be put in writing ...
