Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 757
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Features
The beginning of reform
The Belgian government has taken a step forward in the development of the country’s pension fund system, with a proposed new law aiming to promote the consolidation of the second pillar. The new law, subject to review, will probably come into force at the end of the year. It will ...
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Features
Unaware of funds' hidden costs
Mutual funds investments is widespread among Belgian pension funds. Small pension funds believe that mutual funds meets their specific requirements better, at a law cost and with fiscal advantages. “Today it is quite is quite typical to hear pension funds sponsors saying they don’t pay any management fees because they ...
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Features
Brussels hit by liquidity squeeze
Like most exchanges Brussels’ has had a dreadful year. This is all the less excusable given that the BEL20 is light on TMT stocks. With the index opening at around 3,300 at the beginning of last year, it nose-dived and bottomed out at the middle of March last year at ...
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Features
Technology brings transparency
Real estate business people have always exploited the lack of transparent information in the property markets. Superior knowledge is a key advantage for successful business in the real estate industry. Whereas markets for securities provide a high degree of available data about the prices of the goods traded on the ...
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Features
Altera prepares the ground
Established at Haarlem in the Netherlands, property investment company, Altera Vastgoed was born out of the idea that property should be viewed in the same way as other asset classes. The pension funds of KLM and Hoogovens, the joint shareholders and developers of Altera, sought to use the new company ...
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Features
GPR's neat fit into Kempen
Amsterdam-based merchant bank, Kempen & Co, which has just over e600m in property assets under management, has acquired Global Property Research (GPR), the property research and index specialist in Amsterdam. Kempen is determined to develop its new protégée. “Joining Kempen gives us room to grow,” says GPR analyst, Jeroen Beimer. ...
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Features
New agency to oversee funds
The Republic of Macedonia has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past few months, but surprisingly its economy has shown a strong performance and its government a commitment to social reform. Sadly last month the threat of civil war emerged again, although the government refuses ...
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Features
Opportunity to improve benefits management
The world of financial reporting of retirement benefits for UK-based multinationals changed in November 2000 when the UK Accounting Standards Board (ASB) published Financial Reporting Standard 17 (FRS 17). FRS 17, which values plan assets and liabilities by reference to current market conditions, is very different to the previous standard ...
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Features
Keen eye for pensions assets
Swedish life companies are going through a period of significant change and development. In the news currently is the acquisition of SPP Liv, SPP Fonder and the SPP brand by Handelsbanken, leaving the remainder of the SPP organisation to trade under the name Alecta. SPP Liv was created in 1994 ...
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Features
Giant step into a new world
Last year, PGGM, the Netherlands’ second largest pension fund, took the revolutionary decision to invest in the commodities markets with a commitment of between 3% and 5% of its total portfolio value of about e50bn. This was no sudden move, but came after an extensive asset and liability management (ALM) ...
