All articles by David White – Page 4
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Features
Giving the euro the benefit of the doubt
The euro has disappointed both its admirers and its critics. It has neither succeeded nor failed dramatically. Officially launched on 1 January 1999, some said that it would fly like a bird and others that it would sink like a lead balloon. Both, in different degrees, have been proved wrong
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Features
ECM looking to spread its wings
Evergreen Investments, the investment management business of Wachovia Corporation, the fourth largest bank in the US, recently bought a majority stake in European Credit Management (ECM) a London-based fixed income boutique with €20bn assets under management and some 400 institutional clients in 40 countries. The deal, which gives Wachovia a ...
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Features
Customer intimacy with a spider's touch
Radical changes in the printing industry have spurred Holland’s GBF pension fund manager to adopt a more active open-ended asset management style and closer focus on customer needs. David White reports
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News
Ex-Philips chief rails against LDI
NETHERLANDS - The former head of one of the Netherlands largest corporate pension funds has criticised the “rigid” application of LDI strategies by pension funds in the Netherlands.
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News
Save together or pay the price - Robeco
EUROPE - Defined contribution (DC) pension plans must be collective in future or they will fail, a Dutch asset manager has warned.
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News
LDI ‘no panacea’ for European pension funds
EUROPE - Liability-driven investment (LDI) is not a panacea for European pension funds or a profitable business for asset management firms, the head of a leading international asset manager has warned.
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News
Danish worries that derivative costs could impact return guarantees
DENMARK - The financial head of a leading Danish pensions provider has warned that the cost of hedging against liability risk is forcing it to consider ways of re-negotiating the guaranteed returns it promises.
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Features
Putting and calling fund options
Pension funds are simply accumulations of embedded options and pension fund designers should recognise this, risk consultant Theo Kocken tells David White
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Features
The return of quant investing
Asset managers are increasingly turning to quant approaches to generate outperformance, as David White reports
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Features
Looking back at the changes
As it celebrates its 10th birthday, IPE takes the opportunity to assess developments in the pensions and investment world over the past decade by asking pension fund managers, administrators and trustees what they see as the significant developments, both positive and negative, over the period
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Features
Punching well above its weight
Switzerland’s PK for freelance journalists is an unusual pension plan, which was founded by a union, has employers’ contributions and a competitor. David White learns how it all comes together
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Features
Predicting a predictable New Year
Forecasting the future of the financial world is fraught with difficulty and the chances of making spectacularly bad predictions are high. Famously, Irving Fisher, a professor of economics at Yale University, said in 1929 that “stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau”. If stoics are to believed and everything is predetermined, divination is at best guesswork and at worst alarmist. However, there may be some value in educated guesses.
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Features
Cooperlavoro waits for the breakthrough
This Italian fund’s strong performance is beginning to attract the interest of potential members. David White talks to Flavio Casetti
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Features
Optimising beta
Institutional investors may be missing out on the full benefits of a core-satellite approach to portfolio investment because they are using broad market indexes as benchmarks for the core and failing to optimise the passive part of their portfolio. This was the central message of Noël Amenc, professor, finance department, ...
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Features
Barclays steps up 'return-seeking'
Since 2002 Mark Hyde-Harrison has reduced his fund’s exposure to equities and heavily increased the share of alternatives. David White reports
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Features
Filling in an empty space
Hedge funds and private equity have the depth of experience needed, argue proponents of restructuring. David White reports
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Features
Members back cash pay-outs
Despite the fear of governments, pension plan members prefer cash withdrawals, as David White report
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Features
Fine art of asset management
In the iconography of European asset management, Dexia Asset Management could be cast as the hero from zero. In the 1990s it was merely a gleam in the eye of the Franco-Belgian Dexia banking group. Today it is one of Europe’s leading asset managers, with over €100bn assets under management. ...
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Features
Norway's tale of 'haves' and 'have-nots'
Unlike its Scandanavian counterparts, Norway is unlikely to adopt the ‘traffic light’ system. David White reports
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Features
On the prowl for themes
Themes for Sarasin’s thematic investment are devised by a theme origination committee, headed by its chief economist Subitha Subramaniam who joined Sarasin from the World Bank. Subramaniam is responsible for translating global macro trends into the thematic process. ” We basically try to identify long term trends that are taking ...
