All IPE articles in December 2014 (Magazine) – Page 2

  • Features

    Briefing, Investment: Breakevens breakout

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Some key indicators of markets’ inflation expectations have broken sharply downwards during 2014. Caroline Saunders asks, should we – and central bankers – be worried?

  • Features

    Briefing: The force of member power

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    IPE’s October Focus Group poll looked at the issue of engagement with members’ views. This month, we take the debate further by asking leading opinion formers how they see the issue of member power versus pension boards’ investment discretion. 

  • Features

    Briefing, Investment: Gulf in expectations

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Oil revenues act as a source of diversification in Persian Gulf markets, but there is more to 
them than the black stuff, writes David Turner. The forthcoming opening of the Saudi market to foreign investors promises a new opportunity for institutional investors to participate.

  • Features

    ESG: A sustainable capital markets union

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    The European Commission has proposed to launch a capital markets union by 2019. But what could it entail and will it be a boon for those pursuing sustainable returns? Jonathan Williams reports.

  • Interviews

    Strategically speaking: Grandmaster Capital Management

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    “Under no circumstances should you play fast if you have a winning position,” advised Hungarian chess Grandmaster Pal Benko. “Use all your time and make good moves.”

  • Features

    Commentary, Investment: Cash-flow liquidity

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Joe McDonnell describes how carefully modelling cash flows can open opportunities for investing in a wider range of semi-liquid and illiquid assets

  • Interviews

    On The Record: CERN Pension Fund Switzerland, Théodore Economou, CEO

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    As an investor, I focus on managing risk as well as return. Going forward, simply beating the index will no longer be enough, and that is why they will have to focus on risk-management in portfolio construction. At the same time, I believe it is important to look at the long-term cycle, as there is value added in identifying long-term risks and trends. 

  • John Corrigan, CEO of National Treasury Management Agency
    Features

    Interview, John Corrigan, CEO, NTMA: Europe’s comeback kid

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    John Corrigan must have known he was not taking on the world’s easiest job when he became CEO of Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) in November 2009. The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) ‘bad bank’ had been set up to recapitalise the country’s ruined financial institutions, and plans were afoot to carve out a chunk of the National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF) for the same purpose. 

  • Special Report

    Special Report, Fees & Costs: Winds of change

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Brendan Maton reports on the anxious vigilance around costs in pension fund management, but finds progress to be frustrated and incomplete.

  • Country Report

    Pensions in Switzerland: Changes on the horizon

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Risk-based strategies are gaining momentum among Swiss pension funds, Carlo Svaluto Moreolo finds

  • Stichting Pensioenfonds TNO – asset allocation
    Features

    How we run our money: Hans de Ruiter, CIO of Pensioenfonds TNO

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Having rationalised the fund’s portfolio, Hans de Ruiter, CIO of Pensioenfonds TNO tells Carlo Svaluto Moreolo about his fund’s positive attitude towards private equity and why he sees alternative credit as a first line of defence against challenging markets

  • Special Report

    Special Report, Fees & Costs: Coming together to cut costs

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Caroline Liinanki finds Danish pension providers merging and teaming up to cut investment costs as they reach the limits of what they can achieve themselves.

  • Country Report

    Pensions in Switzerland: Cost wary could lose out

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    All sides agree that the new cost transparency regulation is a great success. But the federal government has more ideas up its sleeve, finds Barbara Ottawa

  • Country Report

    Cost transparency: What Switzerland can learn from the Netherlands

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    The discussion on asset management costs is not limited to Switzerland. In the Netherlands, similar regulatory requirements have been in place for a couple of years, transparency is completely accepted now, and the discussion has moved to cost levels.

  • Special Report

    Special Report, Fees & Costs: If the price is right

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Surveys suggest that investors feel more could be done to make private equity fund terms fairer. But Jennifer Bollen finds that pension funds also recognise that simply squeezing costs may not be the wisest approach.

  • Special Report

    Special Report, Fees & Costs: Selling fees short

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Hedge fund fees have fallen and managers have come around to the idea of negotiating on them, writes Joseph Mariathasan. But structures still need to be more sophisticated.

  • Features

    Global rating of pension systems, interview with David Knox, Melbourne Mercer Global Pensions index

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Now in its sixth year, the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension index has become a yardstick for the world’s industry to assess the successes and failures of pensions policy.

  • Features

    Diary of an Investor Praise indeed

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    My wife Jeanette is from France and it has been a great pleasure over the years to discover that country through her eyes and to get to know her family. This year, at the start of the autumn holidays, we drive down to Lyon with the children to stay with Jeanette’s sister Marie and her husband Jean-Baptiste.

  • Features

    I need a dollar

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Risk assets had a terrible time early in October. What was all the fuss about? Soft US retail sales data? Hardly. The geopolitical background? Unlikely. Weak numbers out of Germany and a lack of faith in the ECB? Jitteriness at the prospect of the Fed packing up QE? Quite possibly. 

  • Features

    Focus Group: Don't run with elephants

    December 2014 (Magazine)

    Half of the investors polled for this month’s Focus Group allocate to hedge funds. One additional fund manages hedge fund strategies in-house.