Asset Allocation – Page 333
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Multinationals outline benefits plans
Akzo Nobel, the chemicals multinational, plans to set up a common investment fund for its European pensions arrangements. Discussing the company’s plans Bert Kiffen, co-ordinator international pensions affairs, said: It is our view that with a single currency, one investment fund will be possible.” The scheme is still at the ...
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Flexible benefits 'sweetener'
Giving mobile employees appropriate salaries as they move from country to country rarely poses a problem for an employer.The provision of benefits - especially those such as pensions - can be far more difficult. Local laws often make it impossible for the employee to remain in the home country” pension ...
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BT's defensive strategy
We continue to see an extended cycle of moderate world growth and low inflation. The global economy is out of sync: the US is leading the growth cycle and Japan, Europe and Asia are lagging. We expect the US to slow in response to tightening monetary conditions in 1998 but ...
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Prime's candidates
In the first quarter, we began a gradual reduction of our position in equities and an increase in the share of bonds. We are now underweighted in equities and overweighted in bonds as compared to international benchmarks. The reasons for this follow.We are underweighted in the US. We think the ...
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Colossus of public pension finances
French giant CDC looks after the retirement arrangements of over 5m public sector workers. Fennell Betson meets the man in charge
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The costs of regulation
Danish pensions funds are overburdened with regulations, and could perform better if they had more freedom to make their own investment decisions, says Peter Dencik, managing director of Singer & Friedlander International Asset Management.Dencik, who used to be deputy executive director of the pension fund administration company PKA in Denmark, ...
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No free lunch from credit spread
In recent months it has become popular to equate monetary union and the introduction of a credit term in government bond yields with a bottom-up” approach to fixed income fund management. This is, at best, rather naive.It is true that the independence of the European Central Bank and the mutual ...
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Danish funds outgrow home market
Denmark’s pensions funds are growing so fast that they are keener than ever to look outside their own stock market for investment opportunities. But strict investment regulations keep them largely hemmed inside national borders.In 1995, Danish pension assets were estimated at around Dkr750bn ($115bn). By now, that is thought to ...
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DB or DC: the debate
Supporters of defined benefit put up a spirited defence of their system against the advocates of defined contribution during a debate at the Asinta network’s annual conference in Rome last month.Roy Cecil, director of human resources Europe, Beckman Instruments, accused proponents of DC of cowardice and gross violations of human ...
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EMU threat
The head of a US employee benefits company has warned European countries of the threat of pensions liabilities to EMU.Pointing to the EMU timetable, Michael Gulotta, chief executive of ASA, which anchors the Asinta gobal benefits network, raised the issue of pension liabilities: The national debt criterion becomes particularly interesting ...
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Germany looks at new funding schemes
Occupational pension plans in Germany are mainly financed by building up pensions liabilities in the company through the book reserve system. The external financing vehicles are insurance policies and two types of pensions funds: the Pensionskasse and the Unterstützungskasse (support fund).Currently, three new approaches for external pensions funding are being ...
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Legal snag hits Italian plans
Legal difficulties surrounding the participation of trade unions on the boards of planned Italian company pension plans mean the first contributions will not be paid until 1998.The Corte dei Couti, a body which oversees the content of legislation, last month struck down a decree put forward by labour minister Tiziano ...
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Hong Kong: Strength from within
The Hong Kong market has been affected by sentiment indicators but is fundamentally strong, according to Chung Man Wing, director of HSBC Asset Management Hong Kong, which manages part of the pension investments for HSBC’s em-ployees in Hong Kong and elsewhere.In the very near term, worries about the local property ...
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Sweden: Record performance
Equities look set to bring a positive return for the fourth year running on the Swedish market. Currently hovering at around the 12% mark, analysts are hopeful that performance will be maintained, though are divided as to the extent.Bjorn Olsen, chief investment officer of Skandia, is cautiously optimistic on the ...
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Robeco plans for robust US recovery
With a robust recovery in the US, signs of a recovery in continental economies and ongoing growth in Japan, one might expect synchronised global growth in the second half of 1997, a shift to more neutral monetary policies worldwide and rising bond yields. Robeco’s Investment Policy Committee (IPC) still believes, ...
