Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 347
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Features
NAPF predicts the rise of UK super trusts
The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) investment conference in Edinburgh last month focused on issues of scale in defined contribution (DC) schemes. Chairman Mark Hyde Harrison once again renewed his call for the launch of ‘super trusts’ – predicting that up to six of these larger vehicles could be ...
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Features
Property valuation
Any business that wants to stay in business needs to recognise revenue. And conveniently enough, recent machinations at the IASB have combined in a perfect storm of revenue recognition, the attractiveness of Far East property as an asset class, secrecy and oversight.
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Country Report
Germany: Providers of liquidity
As banks are withdrawing from project financing in real estate and infrastructure, Versorgungswerke like the BVK are stepping in and actively seeking investment partners, finds Barbara Ottawa
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Country Report
Germany: Are Pensionsfonds maturing?
Klaus Stiefermann, Sabine Mahnert and Dr Cornelia Schmid argue that a few regulatory adjustments could greatly improve occupational pensions
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Country Report
Germany: Two anniversaries and a critique
Mercer’s November 2011 summary of German corporate pension provision notes that “….supplementary pension plans… typically either adopt a book reserving approach, with or without segregated assets, or an insured pensions approach”. That’s diplomatic language for “not widespread with too little funding”, a situation that contributes to Germany ranking eleventh out ...
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Country Report
Germany: Ten years of master KAG – an interim assessment
Clemens Schuerhoff and Hans-Jürgen Dannheisig draw on their experience in specialist consulting to assess the achievements and challenges for master KAGs in Germany
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Country Report
Germany: No-man’s- land
Nina Röhrbein analyses how the current financial and interest rate environment is affecting German pension funds’ asset allocation
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Country Report
Germany: Navigating through stormy weather
When it comes to asset allocation, German pension funds are under increasing pressure from various sources, writes Torsten Köpke
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Special Report
Boutique Asset Managers: In at the ground floor
Even if the performance benefits of early-stage managers might be contested,Lynn Strongin Dodds identifies further positives in the form of negotiated fees, revenue sharing and direct-ownership opportunities
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Special Report
Boutique Asset Managers: IMQubator: giving talent a push
Capitalised in January 2009 with €250m from the Netherlands’ APG following the recommendation of a working group from the Holland Financial Centre, IMQubator intermediates the allocation of seeding and operational capital from third-party institutional investors to early-stage boutiques. Martin Steward spoke to founder and CEO Jeroen Tielman about the business ...
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Special Report
Boutique Asset Managers: Size bias
In today’s environment pension funds ought to seek absolute returns, write Jeroen Tielman and Hamlin Lovell. And if you are after absolute returns, it pays to go with smaller, younger managers
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Special Report
Boutique Asset Managers: The case for scale
Charles Prideaux examines how a judicious combination of scale and tailoring can help institutional investors meet the specific outcomes they need
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Features
Is capital undervalued and equity a ‘stranded asset’?
Adam Smith reckoned that division of labour in a pin factory boosted productivity 4,800-fold: in manufacturing, division of labour led to a collapse in the cost of labour. Similarly, diversity in the intermediation of capital in equity markets – between high and low-frequency traders and investors with various time horizons – should reduce the cost of capital.
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Features
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
More often than not, investors are invested in some part of the food chain.And because of this they have occasionally found themselves in the dock accused of hiking up food prices through food-related commodity speculation – although research on this remains inconclusive.
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Features
Uncertainty grows over Irish pension reforms
Irish pension funds face growing uncertainty in the current regulatory climate, with the promised revision to the minimum funding standard overdue and the introduction of sovereign annuities leaving trustees to wonder just how liable they will be for any losses incurred when using the new product.
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Opinion Pieces
Long-term Matters: Climate a major beta risk
Last week in Istanbul, I heard the International Energy Authority’s chief economist say the world’s on track for six degrees warming by 2100. This “catastrophe for all of us” is the mother of all preventable surprises.
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Opinion PiecesRonald Doeswijk & Laurens Swinkels, Robeco
To start this contribution on inflation, let’s open with some facts. First, central banks around the world tend to target inflation rates. In developed countries, an inflation target of 2% is not unusual. Second, since major central banks around the globe started to target inflation in the early 1980s, inflation has fallen from double-digit figures to low single digits. So, it is not that difficult to conclude that central banks’ targets are realistic and that there is hardly any reason for investors to worry about inflation in the medium term.
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Features
Regulating Europe
Gail Moss reviews pension regulation and law changes under discussion in seven European countries
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Features
Flyweight in benchmark knock-out
Nina Röhrbein spoke with Gregor Hirt, head of investment for the pension fund Vorsorgestiftung Schroder & Co Bank, who explains how it punches above its weight
