All articles by David White – Page 5
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Features
Opening doors to performers
Thematic investment enables an investor to take a complex world of more than 2,000 stocks and, through a disciplined process, turn it into a manageable, investable portfolio. This is how Guy Monson, chief investment officer of Sarasin Chiswell, explains the appeal of thematic investment. Monson pioneered the use of thematic ...
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Features
Co-operation is the way forward
As accounting rules tighten, more legislation is introduced and investment becomes more complex, a growing number of Dutch pension funds are contracting out their asset management and administration. Two leading providers of pension fund management services – Cordares and Mn Services – have responded to these developments by pooling their expertise. Leen Preesman and David White talk to the architects of this alliance
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Features
Using as many alpha sources as you can
Knut Kjaer explains why the giant Norwegian global fund takes as many independent bets as possible to David White
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Special Report
Making a beeline for activist hedge funds
The activities of activist funds in targeting companies that have become national champions have caused political apoplexy throughout Europe, with ministers wagging their fingers at pension funds and warning them to have nothing to do with predatory private equity companies and hedge funds. But pension funds are encouraged to diversify into alternative investments and become active owners of the companies they invest in. So what should they do?
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Features
Polished display from Pensioensfonds Metaal
A more specialist approach and less dependence on consultants has helped the Pensioenfonds Metaal scheme in Belgium increase its assets six-fold, writes David White
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Features
Procrastination and pan-European pensions
As opponents of the EU are fond of saying, Europe is a continent, not a country. The national interests of member states will inevitably take precedence over plans for cross-border co-operation. Naked nationalism will always be stronger than Panglossian proposals for pan-Europeanism
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Features
Arnott's RAFI models: 'dumb and smart'
Rob Arnott, RAFI’s designer, describes the basic model as “dumb”, meaning that it is a purely passive index. Research Affiliates and Informed Portfolio Management (IPM), the Stockholm based arm of First Quadrant, have since introduced a “smart ” or enhanced version of RAFI to show what a little judicious tweaking ...
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Features
The subtleties of the quest for alpha
The search for alpha, the current grail of active investment managers, has obscured the fact that alpha can be either positive or negative. Identifying and removing negative alpha can be as profitable for investors as finding positive alpha. In the current institutional investment climate, that is the strongest argument in ...
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Features
Contributors' welfare is paramount
The Kosovo Pension Savings Trust is at pains to ensure its mandatory scheme is transparently one that members can trust, writes David White
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Features
Hedge funds - over the top?
In this month’s Off The Record, we look at the whether now or anytime is the right time for pension funds to be investing in hedge funds
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Features
A tale of two debates
The Dutch pensions market has been preoccupied with the twin issues of regulation and how pension funds should account for their assets and liabilities. David White reports
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Features
The rise of fiduciary mandates
Is the move towards fiduciary management in Holland a new trend or simply a case of old wine in new bottles? David White investigates
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Features
Pooling in Holland gathers pace
Shell’s decision to pool its assets into a single vehicle in the Netherlands could signal the country’s arrival as a favoured destination for cross-border assets to rival Ireland and Luxembourg. David White reports
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Features
Meeting the need to know
For global custodians, information is the new asset class. Across Europe, pension fund boards and trustees are coming under pressure from sponsors, accountants and regulators to provide greater transparency. To do that they need information, not only about the value of their assets, but how that value was created. As ...
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Features
Boutique staying true to its roots
Peter Wilby chose Stone Harbor, a beach town on the east coast of the US, as a location to negotiate a deal to spin off a team of some 65 professionals including 27 investment specialists from the entity created by Legg Mason’s acquisition of Citigroup Asset Management last year. The ...
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Features
Plain speaker who raised awareness
Chief executive of the NAPF, Christine Farnish, has consistently argued the cause for the generation following the ‘baby boomers’, writes David White
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News
Italian postal fund tenders €100m
ITALY - Fondoposte, the complementary pension fund for Italian postal workers, is looking for managers to manage €100m of assets.
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News
Dutch insurance premiums dwarf pension premiums
NETHERLANDS - Premiums paid to Dutch insurance companies were three times as high as premiums paid to Dutch pension funds at the beginning of 2006 (Corrects figures in 2nd paragraph).
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News
Swedish Minister warns of transparency law
SWEDEN - Sven-Erik Österberg, the Swedish Minister for Local Government and Financial Markets, has warned that he may introduce a new law to compel private equity and venture capital companies to disclose information about their borrowing.
