Investor Strategy – Page 254
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News
Swiss fund to select hedging or overlay manager
SWITZERLAND – The SFr 4.6bn (€3.1bn) Bernische Lehrerversicherungskasse (BLVK), pension and insurance fund for teachers employed by the Swiss canton of Berne, is considering modifying its asset allocation strategy to include either currency risk hedging or currency overlay components in order to control and reduce risk.
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Portuguese exchange joins Euronext
PORTUGAL/EUROPE – Euronext, the pan-European stock exchange that resulted from the merger of the Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris exchanges two years ago, has added the Portuguese stock exchange, Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto (BVLP) to its roster.
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European CMBS market to grow 50% in 2002
EUROPE- Low interest rates in the Eurozone, increasing investor appetite and a broadening origination base have led rating agency Standard & Poor’s to predict a 50% growth in Europe’s commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market in 2002.
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BoA appoints European head of global markets
UK- Bank of America has appointed Arrington Mixon as European head of its global markets group.
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iShares launches Eurotop 100 ETF
UK- iShares, the exchange traded fund provider, today launched the FTSE Eurotop 100 ETF which enables investors to invest in Europe’s 100 largest companies while avoiding currency transaction costs. The LSE-listed fund adds to the eleven other iShares funds available in the UK and managed by Barclays Global Investors.
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PGGM and Delta Lloyd plan insurance venture
THE NETHERLANDS- The €50bn pension fund for healthcare and social workers PGGM has announced it is launching a joint venture with Delta Lloyd offering financial services and products to employers and employees in the healthcare and social work sectors.
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Moves to curb police ‘medical retirements’
UK-The government has moved to reduce the incidence of early retirement though ill-health in UK police forces as part of its programme of police reform.
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EU credit deteriorated in 2001 according to S&P
EUROPE – Last year saw a further deterioration in the credit quality of European Union investment grade company bonds, as 122 downgrades against 28 upgrades were recorded, representing some €458bn worth of outstanding debt, against €265bn in 2000, says Standard& Poor’s (S&P).
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Radical overhaul at AHV means March and June RFPs
SWITZERLAND- Switzerland’s first pillar federal pension scheme Ausgleichsfonds der AHV has started a radical overhaul to its asset allocation following new legislation allowing it to invest in global equities for the first time.
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News
Folksam to screen its entire assets in SRI drive
SWEDEN- Swedish investment manager Folksam has announced a screening of its entire Sek105bn (e11.3bn) portfolio for environmentally unfriendly companies and for those that violate human rights. The strategy, launched at the beginning of the year, is underway and expected to take around six months to complete.
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Munich Re doubles stake in Commerzbank
GERMANY –Munich-based insurance and financial services group, Munich Re, has taken a further step towards diversifying into the banking sector by effectively doubling its holding in Commerzbank and reinforcing its stake in HypoVereinsBank (HVB), Germany’s third largest banking group.
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Treasurers warm to outsourcing and online dealing
GLOBAL- Corporate treasurers are becoming much happier outsourcing their activities in an attempt to manage risk and control costs, according to the latest cash management survey by JPMorgan Fleming AM and the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
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AstraZeneca equity cut not influenced by Boots
UK – The recent asset allocation shift that saw the £4.2bn (€6.8bn) AstraZeneca pension fund reduce its equity holdings by five percent in favour of fixed income was not influenced by the Boots pension fund getting rid of its entire equity portfolios last October.
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European ETF assets grow 800% in 2001
GLOBAL- Assets invested in exchange traded funds listed on European exchanges grew more than 800% in 2001 to top $5.6bn (e6.3bn) according to research by Morgan Stanley. Recent figures show there are 71 ETFs with 92 listings on six European exchanges.
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Austria's APK appoints Boehm to replace CEO Kapl
AUSTRIA- Austria’s e1.5bn APK pension fund has appointed Christian Boehm to succeed Helmut Kapl as chief executive. Boehm has been with APK since its creation in 1989 and was previously Kapl’s second in command.
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Swiss federal scheme denies reports of breaking up
SWITZERLAND – Rumours that Switzerland’s largest pension fund, the Pensionskasse des Bundes (PdB), the federal employees’ pension scheme, is to be broken up are completely unfounded, claims Felix Senn, head of asset management for the fund, which had reported assets of €22.4bn in 2000
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Swiss Fund seeks additional managers for €2.4bn
SWITZERLAND – The SFr10bn (€6.8bn) Swiss Post Office pension fund is to begin searching for additional asset managers in March, having already selected UBS Asset Management, Credit Suisse Asset Management and Pictet to run various portfolios for the recently-created fund.
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Italian rail fund to begin manager search in March
ITALY – The Italian State Railways pension fund, Fondo Pensione Eurofer, will begin looking for managers for its €25m assets in March once it has received the regulatory approval from Covip, the Italian pension fund supervisory body.
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Credit Suisse strengthens fixed income teams
UK/GERMANY/ITALY – Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has promoted three members of its European fixed income management teams based in London, Frankfurt and Milan.
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German savings bank launches pensions providers
GERMANY – The German public savings bank network, the Deutsche Sparkassen- und Giroverband (DSGV) and its fund management arm, DGZ DekaBank, has formally established three new retirement provision companies with the German public insurers’ association.
