All IPE articles in December 2012 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Features
LGPS could boost infrastructure by up to 15%
UK local authority funds could soon see investment regulations loosened, allowing a further £20bn (€25bn) in assets to be allocated to infrastructure, according to the department for communities and local government (DCLG).
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Features
Pensions Accounting: Some good IAS19 news
And the good news is praise for IAS19. As an antidote to the usual depressive outlook of this column, this month we have 800 words about what IAS19 does well.
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Special Report
Outlook 2013: Euro Scenarios: Breaking up is hard to do
Quite apart from the investment risks associated with the euro-zone break-up scenario, it introduces complex legal and operational challenges. Charlotte Moore looks at the situation for both investment and non-financial firms
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Special Report
Outlook 2013: Euro Scenarios: The euro-zone’s no-man’s land
Germany’s bonds are safe-haven, ‘risk-off’ assets. Spain’s are ‘risk-on’ assets. But Maha Khan Phillips asks how investors should think about allocations to markets like France and Belgium
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Features
Adapt now or fall by the wayside
Aymeric Poizot argues that to stay competitive, asset managers must act swiftly to re-shape their activities to deal with new challenges being thrown up by rapidly changing market conditions
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Interviews
Boutique ambition
Natixis Asset Management (NAM) might be less well known than other firms in the Natixis Global Asset Management (NGAM) empire, such as Boston’s Loomis Sayles or Chicago’s Harris Associates. But the Paris firm is by far the largest asset manager in its parent’s multi-affiliate structure in asset terms, in part thanks to its historic ties with France’s Caisse d’Epargne and Banque Populaire network, and its strong local roots.
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Features
In your own back yard
Gail Moss looks at how a number of regional pension funds are investing in their own localities
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Features
Institutions suited to bridge the lending gap
Infrastructure as an asset class is at a crossroads. While European banks traditionally provided debt to infrastructure projects pre-2008, the financial crisis and new regulation requiring banks to hold larger amounts of capital have changed the rules.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: Deaf ears for EC claims
Summer 2013 might be some way off but it is when the European Commission intends to publish its proposals for IORP II. And signs from the Commission are that the usual procrastination is no longer intended.
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Asset Class Reports
Hedge Funds: Changing models
The fund of funds model is having to adapt fast to survive. Joseph Mariathasan finds that the new models also require a different approach to thinking about the hedge fund opportunity set
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Features
Diary of an Investor: A tale of two cities
Last week we visited the offices of two asset managers for finals for a European equities mandate. The experiences were instructive.
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Features
Denmark: not one to rest on its laurels
The Danish pension system is the envy of many developed countries. Ranked as the world’s best by Melbourne Mercer, the system also won plaudits from the OECD in September for being home to the best-performing pension funds. But far from resting on their laurels, politicians, regulators and the funds are constantly trying to improve.
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FeaturesVolatility regimes and risk drivers
Using factor model to break down two similar-looking periods of declining implied volatility in Europe and the US, Rachael Smith uncovers surprising differences in the actual sources of risk
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Features
Dutch pension system knocked off its perch
The Netherlands, after leading the Melbourne Mercer Global Pensions Index for three years in a row, has been dethroned by Denmark – a new entry and the first country to ever claim the top grade.
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Features
An equity substitute
David Newman argues that equities have a similar credit profile to high-yield bonds but offer less protection, worse returns and higher volatility. Add in low correlation, and there is a strong case for replacing some equity exposure with high yield
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Special Report
ESG: Sunny side up
Investors in solar power are responding to changes in the markets and finding new ways of gaining exposure, says Nina Röhrbein
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Features
Falling Irish yields scupper pension relief
Ahead of Ireland’s successful, if timid, re-entry into the bond market in July, some within the pensions industry expressed concerns that the government was seeking to ‘incentivise’ investment in Irish debt through the new funding regime for defined benefit schemes.
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Asset Class Reports
Hedge Funds: Taking the ‘fund’ out of hedge funds
Martin Steward spoke to PGGM’s Jan Soerensen about how its managed account platform allows it to take control of its hedge funds – and their costs
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Features
Generational imbalances
Nowadays, it is much harder to define the broad interest groups that are representative of a country as a whole. Previous decades were notable for the division between capital and labour, which persists in the consensual political and decision-making models of continental Europe. But tripartite decision-making between employers, unions and government now seems rather antiquated as membership of organised labour groups has declined over the past 20-30 years and western economies have deindustrialised.
