All articles by Dominic Gane – Page 2

  • Features

    Focus Group: Time to get active?

    January 2016 (Magazine)

    Almost half of the investors polled in this month’s Focus Group, 12 out of a total of 25, state that active equity management within their investment strategy has increased over the past decade

  • Features

    Focus Group: Future threats (and delights)

    December 2015 (Magazine)

    For one-quarter of respondents to this month’s Focus Group, the biggest credible threat to the global economy and financial markets in 2016 is the bursting of quantitative easing-fuelled asset price bubbles. “Inflationary effects can quite suddenly bring markets down, if confidence is lost,” says the CEO of a Dutch fund.

  • Features

    Focus Group: General belief in FX hedging

    November 2015 (Magazine)

    Three-quarters of the investors surveyed for this month’s Focus Group hedge some of their foreign exchange (FX) risk, while just one fund hedges it all. This is a similar proportion to when investors were last polled in April 2013 (81% in 2015 compared with 78% in 2013).

  • Features

    Focus Group: Contribution to the future

    September 2015 (Magazine)

    Two-thirds of the funds polled for this month’s Focus Group said defined contribution (DC) represents the future for pension provision

  • Features

    Focus Group: From a board perspective

    July / August 2015 (Magazine)

    Just over half of the funds polled for this month’s Focus Group consider diversity on a pension fund board to be important

  • Features

    Focus Group: Recovery to continue

    June 2015 (Magazine)

    Fourteen of the 21 investors polled for this month’s Focus Group are confident that Europe’s economic recovery is sustainable in the medium term. “No inflation and labour problems are too serious to be solved in the next 18 months,” said an Italian fund.

  • Features

    Focus Group: Cooler on credit

    May 2015 (Magazine)

    Six in 10 respondents to this month’s Focus Group think that credit has become more important in their fund’s portfolio over the past five years

  • Features

    Focus Group: Regulatory overkill

    April 2015 (Magazine)

    Twenty-three of the pension funds polled for this month’s Focus Group survey find their regulators’ approach affects their investment strategy.

  • Features

    Focus Group: Smarter than the average beta?

    March 2015 (Magazine)

    Over half of the funds responding to this month’s Focus Group survey currently allocate to investments that employ smart beta concepts, with an average of 17.5% of their equity portfolio managed in this way. Nine funds are considering further allocations.

  • 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.  

  • Features

    Focus Group: Is patience a virtue?

    November 2014 (Magazine)

    Over three-quarters of respondents polled for this month’s Focus Group consider their fund to be a long-term investor.

  • Tropical rainforest
    News

    Pension funds still concerned activist stance could damage returns

    2014-10-01T13:58:00Z

    Schemes believe biggest risk of ESG behaviour is lowering returns, IPE survey shows

  • Features

    Focus Group: Contending with the ‘do-gooders’

    October 2014 (Magazine)

    Just over half of respondents polled for this month’s Focus Group said their fund has an overall ESG policy. Around the same number have an active engagement policy for corporate governance issues – and 21 have decided to exclude specific investment areas due to ESG considerations.

  • Features

    Focus Group: Political risk versus reward

    September 2014 (Magazine)

    Unsurprisingly for anyone who has caught a news broadcast during 2014, 20 of the investors polled for this month’s Focus Group think that political risk has increased over the past 12 months, with the five remaining funds saying it has stayed about the same. None feels that it has decreased.

  • Features

    Focus Group: Do you get what you pay for? (Part 2)

    July 2014 (Magazine)

    Just half of the participants to this month’s Focus Group think diversity on a pension fund board is important – but three respondents ranked it as “very unimportant”. “[It is important] both in terms of employer representation, member representation, cultures and gender. Diversity is a key aspect of our communication strategy,” said a UK fund.

  • Features

    Focus Group: Do you get what you pay for?

    June 2014 (Magazine)

    Asset management offers poorer value for money than other service industries, if IPE’s latest Focus Group survey results are anything to go by. 

  • Features

    Focus Group: Do you get what you pay for?

    June 2014 (Magazine)

    Asset management offers poorer value for money than other service industries, if IPE’s latest Focus Group survey results are anything to go by. Eighteen out of 36 respondents feel that it is worse while only 10 feel that it is better. Passive management is considered best in terms of value for money and investor-friendly fee structures, followed by benchmarked long-only active management and smart beta. Private equity and especially hedge funds are seen as the worst offenders.  

  • Features

    Credit where it’s due

    May 2014 (Magazine)

    Of the 22 investors polled for this month’s Focus Group, seven feel that credit has become more important in their fund’s portfolio over the past five years, and a further 10 believe it has become slightly more important. Only two rate credit as less important.

  • Features

    Focus Group: Credit where it’s due

    May 2014 (Magazine)

    Of the 22 investors polled for this month’s Focus Group, seven feel that credit has become more important in their fund’s portfolio over the past five years, and a further 10 believe it has become slightly more important. Only two rate credit as less important.

  • Features

    Focus Group: Feeling deflated

    April 2014 (Magazine)

    Participants in this month’s Focus Group are quite concerned about disinflationary pressures and the threat of deflation – especially in the euro-zone. Taking the euro-zone as a whole, the ‘core’ euro-zone, and the UK, respondents consider near-zero inflation as ‘inconceivable’ only in the latter. By contrast, four out of the 20 investors polled rate the risk of deflation as ‘high’ in the euro-zone as a whole.