Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 361
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IP Asia
How the Euro crisis affects investments
by Lynn Strongin Dodds - Prime office space is the only property sector expected to show capital growth in 2012.
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IP Asia
Asian sovereign funds – what drives them?
Joseph Mariathasan looks at the giants of the investment world and how an understanding of what drives their investment decisions is of interest to fund managers, governments and the wider public.
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IP Asia
How smart is your beta ?
As Japanese investors continue to assess what conclusions to draw from the financial crisis, the concept of “smart beta” is drawing attention from an increasing number of pension funds.
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IP Asia
Japan's DC system after 10 years
A survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare finds subscribers to corporate defined contribution (DC) pension funds climbed to 4 million as of July 31, accounting for one out of every eight salaried workers.
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IP Asia
Japan's PFA cuts managers as reserves decline
The Pension Fund Association (PFA) has cut five foreign managers and is increasing its ratio of funds managed in-house, while remaining committed to expanding its external managers.
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IP Asia
Chinese trust companies – coming in from the shadow
China is making a distinct attempt to legitimise and professionalise the trust sector, whose growing asset management function presents new opportunities for foreign and Chinese investors alike, Iain Mills reports.
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IP Asia
CIC restructures for overseas push
Iain Mills looks at China’s sovereign wealth funds as China Investment Corp undergoes a major restructuring and continues its gradual expansion into active management strategies.
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IP Asia
AustralianSuper: treading the unlisted path to diversification
Brendan Swift looks at the transfer of the range of product and services of Westscheme, which provides superannuation for people living and working in Western Australia, into AustralianSuper.
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IP Asia
Asian debt coming into focus
Investors should consider Asia first when structuring their bond portfolio and get rid of the notion of emerging market debt being junk, according to Aberdeen Asset Management. Barbara Ottawa reports
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Features
A tricky rebalancing act
Last month I attended Lazard Asset Management’s annual investment dinner, where the guest speaker was Peter Mandelson. Lord Mandelson spent eight years as UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and European Commissioner for Trade, so I considered my questions carefully.
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Features
French regulator urges investment in SMEs
The French government’s initiative to set up a private equity fund with institutional investor capital to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) secure investments comes as a surprise, considering the bad press accorded to private equity in France since 2008.
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Features
QE2: Good for the economy, bad for pensions?
While many in the flnancial market welcomed the Bank of England’s relaunch of quantitative easing – or QE2 – committing a further £75bn (€86bn)to its asset repurchase facility, the timing of the announcement took everyone by surprise – including those in the pension industry, who immediately called for an “urgent” meeting with the regulator.
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Features
Tactics before strategy?
Finally on 26 July, the International Accounting Standards Board launched its public consultation on the shape of its future agenda. “In particular,” it would seem, “IASB is seeking feedback on how it should balance the development of financial reporting with the maintenance of IFRSs and – with consideration of our time and resource constraints – those areas of financial reporting that should be given the highest priority for further improvement,” It is perhaps the most succinct statement you will find anywhere in the consultation paperwork.
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Features
Search for advantage in a crowded market
Why launch an emerging market debt (EMD) strategy when there are already 40-plus institutional competitors in the market? First State Investments – which has just hired Helene Williamson from F&C Asset Management along with Jan-Markus May, Manuel Cañas and Philip Fielding to run the strategy – did not make the decision for short-term reasons, according to Gary Withers, the firm’s EMEA managing director.
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Features
Take a leaf out of Apple’s book
In the third in a new series of articles, Neeraj Sahai and Amin Rajan argue that robust innovations require robust processes and robust drivers
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Opinion Pieces
Lans Bovenberg & Casper van Ewijk
The EU debt crisis is making further private funding of pensions more desirable. More private retirement saving is necessary to maintain income in old age when public pensions are being cut due to the crisis. Indeed, the implicit debt in the extensive pay-as-you-go (PAYG) arrangements are an important reason behind the European debt crisis. The best way to address the crisis is to cut entitlement programmes in the medium to long term, while leaving more fiscal room to cushion the economy today.
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Features
Seeking regulatory advantage
Gail Moss reports on the progress pension fund associations are making as they seek to influence future legislation
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Country Report
The Nordic Region: Local safe havens: a catch 22
Nordic pension funds have always displayed a bias towards domestically issued fixed income. In the current economic climate, dominated by historically low bond yields and liability-matching, the illiquidity and short maturities that characterise these markets are causing inefficencies in investment models. Nina RÖhrbein reports on the responses of regional players
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Country Report
The Nordic Region: Solvency II New rules of the game
With full implementation now likely in 2014, Solvency II is looming. Rachel Fixsen examines some of the implications for Danish, Norwegian and Swedish pension institutions
