Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 344
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Features
Restless continent
Africa is set for a busy year of elections – and it has already experienced an old-fashioned coup. Charlotte Adlung assesses the political risks behind the investment opportunities
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Special Report
Pay proposals in the shareholder spring
Shareholders are beginning to flex their muscles by voting against inflated executive remuneration packages in listed companies, says Nina Röhrbein
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Special Report
Smart Beta: New generation of choices
The ‘smart beta’ revolution is taking investors from one ‘passive’ solution – the cap-weighted index – to many. Rachel Fixsen looks at the questions this raises
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Special Report
Smart Beta: Re-balance of payments
Market-cap equity indices have come in for stiff criticism over recent years, but Martin Steward finds their shortcomings are nothing compared with the bond market. A new breed of indices attempts to address their worst failings
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Asset Class Reports
US Equities: Squeezing the last drops
US corporate margins have expanded impressively since the crisis. Joseph Mariathasan asks where the next wave of growth is going to come from
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Features
Smooth operators
The Swiss are taking pains to make their banks as risk-free as possible to ensure client loyalty, finds Iain Morse
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Features
Avoiding the shadows
Iain Morse reports on the growing use of real-time collateral management
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Interviews
De-leveraging, beautiful and beastly
Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha is famed as the world’s largest hedge fund, earning $13.8bn for investors in 2011 alone. But today, over coffee in a luxury London hotel, the focus for Bob Prince, co-chief investment officer of the Connecticut-based firm, is on a beta strategy called ‘risk parity’.
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Interviews
On avoiding hostages to fortune
There is no disputing Northern Trust’s powerhouse status in global custody and asset servicing in Europe. In the UK alone, a big custody contract was renewed by the London Borough of Hillingdon’s pension scheme in 2012, and, along with several similar renewals, it added €19.5bn in custody assets for 13 new clients during 2011, including major names such as the Lothian Pension Fund, the Lancashire County Council Pension Scheme and the Superannuation Arrangements of the University of London (SAUL). Transition management mandates were won from the likes of the Northumberland County Council and Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea pension funds. Losses – such as the East Riding Pension Fund custody mandate that went to State Street – were rare exceptions in the effort to remain a go-to service provider.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: We all agree… but
Everyone agrees about the problems. And everyone agrees that institutional investors need diversified, long-term, risk-managed portfolios to help them meet their liabilities. At least, that is what I concluded after I attended the latest Worldwide Institutional Investing Conference in London last month.
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Special ReportRisk Parity: The truly balanced portfolio
Martin Steward spoke with Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates, the pioneer of alpha/beta separation and risk parity, about strategic diversified beta portfolios
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Special Report
Top 400: Chief concerns
We asked 28 asset management CEOs, CIOs and other senior figures about institutional investment, regulation and corporate governance
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Special Report
DC in Europe: Avoiding a sticking-plaster solution
It is not enough that DB schemes have failed for investors to switch to DC schemes – the latter have to succeed in their own right, argues Amin Rajan
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Special Report
DC in Europe: Opening Pandora’s box
Cécile Sourbes considers how the European Commission plans to regulate defined contribution pensions
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Special Report
DC in Europe: A slow but necessary transition
Rachel Fixsen assesses Denmark’s transition away from DC with guarantees to unit-linked schemes – a move accelerated by the EU’s Solvency II regime
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Special Report
DC in Europe: Waiting for reforms
Talks on reforming Italy’s pension fund legislation to allow schemes to invest in a greater choice of asset classes have been going on for years. Nina Rohrbein reports
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Special Report
DC in Europe: Lower conversion rate plans
The Swiss government is looking to lower the second-pillar pension system’s conversion rate to avoid the need for further adjustments in the near future, finds Nina Rohrbein
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Special Report
DC in Europe: Transition market
The UK trend from defined benefit to defined contribution schemes is expected to intensify with the advent of auto-enrolment and to trigger innovation in investment options, finds Nina Rohrbein
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Special Report
DC in Europe: Australia at a crossroads
Australia has been the poster child of the DC world – yet some are now asking whether there is a better alternative, writes Michael Block
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Brussels: HFT debate hots up
The debate in Brussels on high-frequency trading (HFT) is heating up. The main forum is the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee (ECON), which in July will clarify its position with a vote.
