All IPE articles in January 2015 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Features
Looking ahead: questions for 2015
Micro-prudential or macro-prudential? What do you mean by long term? Is less sometimes more? Is less sometimes more?
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InterviewsStrategically speaking: Aberdeen Asset Management
The timing of Aberdeen Asset Management’s £600m (€757m) acquisition of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) at the start of 2014 could not have been better.
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Features
Funds warm to activist strategies
Almost three-quarters of attendees at IPE’s 2014 conference believe activist shareholding strategies have a role within institutional investment.
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Country Report
Pensions in Central & Eastern Europe: The ‘living organism’ of Macedonian pensions a decade after reforms
Macedonia was one of the latest countries in Eastern Europe to restructure its pension system, having implemented a major reform in 2005.
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Features
Discount-rate agenda
The research effort of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) on discount rates is pretty low-key. Its 2011 agenda consultation revealed moderate support to examine discounting under IFRS. The project is limited in scope, has one full-time staff member, and might not even result in any changes.
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Features
Ahead of the Curve: An era of diminished expectations
Peter Perkins runs through some basic asset and regional allocation strategies to meet the probable economic scenarios of the next decade
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Features
Asset Allocation - Fixed Income, Rates, Currencies: The big picture
The new year will surely see the US Federal Reserve finally raise target rates. When it does, it will be for the first time in six years – which is nearly a record
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Country Report
Pensions In Central & Eastern Europe: Around the region
A Central & Eastern Europe roundup with Carlo svaluto moreolo
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Features
Institutions must dare to invest in untested asset classes
Pension funds and other institutions need to be braver, given the environment of low interest rates, and consider strategies used by hedge funds, the 2014 IPE Conference heard.
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Special Report
Special Report, The M&A Cycle: Commodity bust signals M&A wave in mining – for the right assets
Lower Chinese demand for raw materials and sluggish growth in most industrialised economies have forced mining companies into extensive repair work to bring capital structures and spending plans in line at the end of the ‘commodities supercycle’.
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Interviews
On the Record: Do you invest in long-term, illiquid assets?
Matching long-term cash flow to liabilities
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FeaturesPortfolio Risk Management Commentary: Diversifying fat tails away
Peter Meier, Jann Stoz and Marc Weibel explore the effects of optimising for tail risk rather than volatility, in portfolios with and without hedge funds
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Country Report
Pensions In Central & Eastern Europe: Azerbaijan seeks Latvian and German expertise
In 2013, Azerbaijan and the European Union signed agreements for a twinning project, funded by the EU, which seeks to establish a funded non-state second pillar. Azerbaijan manages assets of over €27bn in its State Oil Fund.
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Features
Flaws in the holistic balance sheet
Wilfried Mulder and Peter Vlaar outline fundamental shortcomings in EIOPA’s holistic balance sheet approach
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FeaturesFocus Group Small isn’t necessarily beautiful
If IPE’s Focus Group is anything like a representative sample, European institutional investors do not allocate much to smaller companies. Only about half invest in listed small-caps, and those allocate 5% or less of their assets. About two-thirds invest via private equity but, again, most allocate in single digits.
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Features
Heavy hitters throw weight behind collective DC
A pension reform plan recently tabled by nine industry experts in the Netherlands could very well serve as the backbone of the country’s future pension system.
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Features
ESG Interview - Jeanett Bergan, KLP: Divestment is only the start
When should asset owners concede defeat and divest from a troublesome company? Jonathan Williams talks to Jeanett Bergan of Norway’s KLP about engagement, divesting, and how exclusion can be the first part of a longer dialogue
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Special ReportSpecial Report, The M&A Cycle: Big deals
Global M&A activity is increasing and mega-deals are leading the way. At a time when growth is sluggish and cash is piling up on balance sheets, Charlotte Moore looks at the trends in terms of regions, sectors and financing
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Asset Class Reports
Investing In Small & Mid-Cap Equities: New book claims that 'The Future is Small'
‘The Future is Small’ (Harriman House, 2014), a newly-published book from Miton Asset Management’s Gervais Williams, contends that while returns from large-cap stocks will remain low in an environment without decent economic growth, we are at the early stages of a multi-decade period of small-company outperformance.
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Features
Investment Briefing: Sayonara, keiretsu
Abenomics may not be the only reason to take another look at Japanese equities. David Turner uncovers a sudden conversion to the shareholder-friendly religion
