Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 355
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Features
Back to the real economy
Government and bank debt is the problem, not the solution, writes Christine Johnson. If you want safety, follow the money – to large corporates
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Asset Class Reports
Small & Mid-Caps: The small-cap dilemma
Small-caps promise so much as an asset class. But Joseph Mariathasan outlines just how difficult it can be to create a viable business out of managing them
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Asset Class Reports
Small & Mid-Caps: The 800-pound gorilla
UK exposure – or lack of it – has been decisive in European small and mid-caps. But Martin Steward finds that managers have also had to contend with a difficult ‘risk-on, risk-off’ environment
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Asset Class Reports
Small & Mid-Caps: Bulls and bears square up
Being on the defensive has paid in 2011, writes Martin Steward. But the US is a confusingly mixed prospect for the coming year
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Special Report
Equity Sectors: Don’t bank on it
Insurers, exchanges, asset managers, emerging-market banks – even US banks – will continue to outperform as the herd deserts the European banking industry, finds Lynn Strongin Dodds
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Special Report
Equity Sectors: On the mend
Investors should stop obsessing about ‘patent cliffs’ and recognise the healthcare opportunities in an ageing population and growing emerging wealth, writes Charlotte Moore
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Special Report
Equity Sectors: All about the luxury brand
Charlotte Moore finds that the consumer sector is no longer all about staples and cyclicals, but rather brands and emerging markets
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Special Report
The evolution of corporate reporting
Sustainability reporting has yet to establish its presence but integrated reporting is trying to gain a foothold within the environmental, social and governance (ESG) arena. Nina Röhrbein reports
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Features
Changed landscape
Iain Morse outlines the effect impending regulations will have on the custody industry and defined benefit pension funds
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Interviews
Alternatives – with pensions DNA
Sometimes a company’s best investments aren’t in businesses or financial markets. When Jack Coates took over management of the pension plan for US forest products firm Weyerhaeuser in 1985, he was returning to full-time work after the company let him pursue a PhD while working part-time in his international treasury position. That investment was to pay off handsomely. His research led him to understand how alternative investments could be relevant to the challenge he saw before the Weyerhaeuser pension plan, which was under-funded and needed to generate higher returns without incurring too much downside volatility.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: To be charitable
It is a windy morning at the end of January and I am driving to a conference in Amsterdam.
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Features
‘Keep it simple’
To mark our fifteenth anniversary, we asked 15 European pension funds about the past, present and future of pensions. Although eight respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey felt the trend would abate, all believed that increases in pension members’ longevity would continue in the 2010s and 2020s. Only two felt their fund was badly prepared to deal with this. A Dutch fund commented: “We already calculate a future increasing life expectancy, and I think it will be less than our calculations.”
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Features
Strategy and tactics
The annual strategy meeting of the Wasserdicht pension funds is always an interesting affair. We are meeting at a nice hotel in the area of Frankfurt, with a decent golf course. Helmut from our German Pensionskasse is our host and the chairman of the meeting.
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Features
Consultants could improve
Almost half of the respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey used investment consultants on a retainer basis, although just slightly fewer used them on an occasional or project basis. Only two respondents never use consultants.
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Opinion Pieces
Don’t touch Article 18
Investment rules for workplace pension funds should not be harmonised at European level. At least, this is the view aired in several responses to the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority’s (EIOPA) call for advice (CfA) document on the revisions to the 2003 IORP Directive.
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Opinion Pieces
In the line of fire
The $225bn (€177bn) California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) used to be considered a leader in setting new trends, such as investing to improve companies’ corporate governance or to achieve environmental and social goals. But today it is in the line of fire, with critics pointing to its disappointing results and pushing for big changes.
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Features
Austria can learn from Denmark
Birgit Vogt-Majarek, Dr Natalie Seitz and Jakob Arffmann explain how Austria’s pension system might benefit from the experiences of Denmark in promoting greater participation of the over-50s in the labour market
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Country Report
Central and Eastern Europe: Decimated
Hungary’s mandatory pension system is in tatters following last year’s nationalisation of the sector’s assets, writes Thomas Escritt
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Country Report
Central and Eastern Europe: Post traumatic stress
Polish pension funds are not using their freedom to invest more in equities, finds Krystyna Krzyzak
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Country Report
Central and Eastern Europe: An uncertain year
Poland’s second pillar providers are looking for clarity, writes Krystyna Krzyzak
