All Features articles – Page 265
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Features
Hedge strategies still dominant
December was globally a good month for hedge fund strategies, especially when compared to the disappointing performance in 2004 as a whole. But as shown in table 1, the performance of the different strategies was mixed in December. While the convertible arbitrage and CTA global strategies fell short of their ...
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Features
Going global top down
European pension funds looking to invest in global equities may feel that they are limited to investment managers at the micro, stock-picking level, since equity markets at the macro, country and sector level are expected to converge. Payden & Rygel is challenging this assumption with the launch of a global ...
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Features
Looking at the dynamics
While the message is gradually getting through that tactical asset allocation (TAA) has evolved and improved since the early 1990s, consultants say this new investment method has yet to prove itself in the long term. Andrew Kirton, UK investment consulting practice leader at Mercer says TAA is back on the ...
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Features
A place for equities
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries – the Slovakia, Denmark and Germany – the same question: ‘Equities are still the only asset class that can provide the returns that pension funds need to reduce their deficits – or are they?’ Here are their answers Gabriel Hinzeller is ...
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Features
Generous to a fault
Belgium’s 150 MPs retire on one of the most generous pensions of any parliamentarians in Europe - some 75% of final salary - which compares with around two-thirds of final salary in most other cases. But in terms of the length of time it takes to accumulate a full pension, ...
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Features
Hard going in France
While multi-manager (MM) services have grown dramatically in popularity worldwide, France is one European market where progress has been slow. Foreign entrants to the French MM institutional market have found it particularly hard to make progress, and domestic organisations which set up MM products some years ago have found growth ...
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Features
Hedge funds provide good return for Shell
Stichting Shell Pensioenfonds, the e13.7bn scheme of the oil giant, made a 6.9% return on its hedge fund investments in 2004. “On the hedge fund portfolio a return of almost 7% was achieved,” the scheme says in a statement on its website. Hedge funds, including currency hedging, account for 5.5% ...
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Features
Mandatory saving not the German way
The government has ruled out the possibility of private saving for retirement in Germany becoming mandatory, saying its pension reforms of 2001 and 2004 should be sufficient. To encourage saving for retirement, the government created Riester Rente in 2001 – second- and third-pillar pensions that qualify for government subsidies. But ...
