All IPE articles in December 2011 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Features
New chairman rings in the changes at AbA
Attendees of this year’s autumn conference of the German pension fund association Arbeitsgemeinschaft betriebliche Altersversorgung (AbA) in Cologne found an organisation preparing for a new pension era in Germany and across Europe.
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Special Report
And what about Japan itself?
Clearly the view a fund manager takes of Japan’s short to medium term macro prospects has a strong determining influence on their view of Japanese equities. Simon Edelsten, senior fund manager of the Artemis Global Select Fund, likes the fact that neither Japan – nor the rest of Asia – has adopted the EU’s penchant for austerity, or seen their banks have to de-lever to the same extent.
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Interviews
Strategic agility
Nordic private equity house CapMan does not make things easy on itself. Its mission statement: “To be the best-performing European private equity firm”.
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Features
Alight for full funding
Markus Hübscher, CEO of the Swiss Federal Railways pension fund, told Nina Röhrbein about his fund’s restructuring and new internal governance structure
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Features
Cash in the attic
Squeezing a return out of cash can expose funds to unexpected risk. But Charlotte Moore suggests that using it for strategic optionality removes the need to take risk in the search for yield
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Features
NAPF: Preparing for auto-enrolment
The EU and DC were two of the most hotly debated topics at October’s National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) conference in Manchester.
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Features
The good, the bad and the average
New analysis from Merrill Lynch indicates that hedge funds have never been so closely correlated with equities as they have in the past three years. It initiated another of those periodic waves of comment that pension funds are wasting their time and money going to hedge funds for “uncorrelated returns”.
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Features
A precarious balance
We have heard much in recent years about institutions that were, or are, ‘too big to fail’, particularly in 2008 when Bear Stearns collapsed, followed later that year by the entry of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into government conservatorship, the bailout of AIG and the collapse without rescue of Lehman Brothers.
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Asset Class Reports
Hedge Funds: Carving a new niche
Hedge funds are booming – but funds of funds are not. Joseph Mariathasan outlines the ways in which the intermediaries are re-thinking their role
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Features
Heightened scrutiny on derivatives collateral
The use of credit support annexe (CSA) agreements, defining the collateral that can be posted in bilateral over-the-counter derivative (OTC) trades, has increased significantly over recent years as pension funds have made increasing use of derivatives.
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Special Report
SRI education must continue
A Eurosif study shows a lack of knowledge among European corporate pension funds is hampering greater adoption of ESG factors in their investment strategies, writes François Passant
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Features
Scepticism over cross-border schemes
The desire to implement defined contribution (DC) pension plans is growing among companies around the world, while the necessity, one day, of a pan-European DC scheme is at the front of industry minds. But even though some pension providers have already paved the way, the journey is a long one.
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Features
Focus on DC
It is difficult to retain sight of the founding principles of the EU’s Pensions Directive (IORP) when confronted with the 500-page response of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) to the EC’s call for advice last April on its review of the legislation.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Investment detour
This autumn, we at Wasserdicht Pension Funds in the Netherlands are touring some of our factories around the country to talk to members and pensioners about the pension fund.
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Special Report
Rich diversity
The bewildering variety of multi-asset funds can make them difficult to compare. But Martin Steward thinks that 2011 has revealed some useful patterns
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Asset Class Reports
Hedge Funds: Dose of fee realism
Hedge fund fees do seem to be coming down in aggregate, but Emma Cusworth finds that if you want good performance you might simply have to suck up those charges
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Special Report
Too early to tell
It’s clear to everyone that globalisation is re-shaping the world economy. But Maha Khan Phillips asks questions of the consensus around which sectors will benefit
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Interviews
New entrant to European fiduciary management
Here in Europe, the joke says that British Airways is a pension scheme that owns a few planes. The US equivalent claims that General Motors is a social security fund with a sideline in building Buicks.
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Features
Persistency via operational excellence
In the final article in the current series, Jervis Smith and Amin Rajan highlight the role of third-party administrators as innovation partners
