Asset Allocation – Page 335
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Features
Hermes descends from the heights
Alastair Ross Goobey explains how the UK’s biggest pension fund will grow its investment services on the back of the defined contribution market. Fennell Betson reportsHermes is on the cusp of a momentous next stage in its development. As the UK’s largest pension fund, it is about to take the ...
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Features
Overweight in European equities
The probability that the Fed will raise rates has increased due to unexpectedly strong growth momentum in the US. Not surprisingly, this is to some extent reflected in current US bond prices. This plus decreasing earnings momentum and a stronger dollar put a drag on the US equity market. European ...
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Features
Luxembourg to launch 'European pension fund'
The wraps were taken off the European pension fund made in Luxembourg last month by Lucien Thiel of the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association.The fund would be designed for European companies that want to have “a single pension scheme with common rules for all their employees in different EMU member states” said ...
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Features
New law means all change for French pensions
France’s long-awaited Pensions Law finally arrives, reports John Lappin
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Features
Asia: Market prospects divide the experts
The need for reform by the Indian government is unquestionable, but UK and Indian analysts are divided in their opinions as to how much the market is going to improve in the short term. Jayendra Nayak, executive trustee at the Unit Trust of India in Mumbai, thinks the prospects for ...
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Features
Asia: The smart way in
People looking to invest in India will find SBC Warburg’s list of Indian funds interesting for what it says about the Indian equity market. The funds market is clearly segmented. Such segmentation, in funds markets generally, tends to evolve when the underlying local market is either highly regulated, or inefficient ...
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Features
Australia: Correction fears keep eyes on US markets
The recent run of the Australian equity market has pensions managers there guessing as much as outsiders. John Cann national manager remuneration and superannuation at Ansett Australia, based in Sydney, says: We don’t anticipate the Australian market is going to continue to be as strong as it has been in ...
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Features
Australia: Country risk premium to fade
After a two year run which saw industrial shares rise by 40%, Australian analysts are wary as to where things go from here. Chris Walker, head of Australian equities at Colonial Investment management in Melbourne, says: The rise occurred without much in the way of earnings growth. A lot of ...
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Features
BMW puts car at the core
BMW (GB), UK subsidiary of the giant German carmaker, took a novel aproach to restructuring its employee benefit programme, making full use of the company’s renowned product. There was a time when every employee in the company could be placed by the model of car they drove. Thanks to BMW’s ...
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Features
Norway: Running with the bulls
With the factors driving Norway’s bull market still very much in place, the question is not whether it will continue to grow but how far. The market, reflecting a booming oil-driven economy has increased by 10% since the start of the year. With most indicators predicting continued growth the biggest ...
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Features
USA: US markets still in business
Optimism, albeit cautious, about the US equity market is the view emanating from Trish Bridson, assistant director and head of North American equities at Kleinwort Benson in London. She says: “We see growth of between eight and 10%, driv-en mainly by earnings growth which we also think will grow by ...
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Features
UK committee criticised for pensions recommendations
The UK-centred debate over Europe’s pensions liability and its affect on EMU heated up last month when a lobbying group published a paper criticising the Parliamentary Social Security Committee for recommending that unfunded pensions liabilities should be included in the EMU convergence criteria. In addition, in mid-February, the committee held ...
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Features
French company schemes 'a winner', says survey
The new French company pensions law should be a guaranteed success according to a survey carried out by Frank Russell Paris for Groupe AXA. Sixty-nine per cent of the companies surveyed aim to set up plans under the new law. A total of forty companies responded to the survey, carried ...
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Features
Netherlands: Diversify and prosper
For the past few years, institutional investors in the Netherlands have been steadily adding international securities to their portfolios. This has prompted discussion of the benefits of diversification and of the management of the associated currency exposure. Our research shows that optimum diversification outside the Netherlands is far greater than ...
