Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 402
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Features
On the comeback trail
This month’s Off The Record survey focuses on pension fund investment in private equity. Of the 34 funds that completed the survey, 70% stated they currently invest in private equity, while 30% did not.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Understand everything
Apologies for returning to an important theme that is still running in Holland – that the definition of good governance is one where the pension fund boards must only approve investment in strategies they completely understand. Think about that for a moment. Now picture this
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Features
Swiss custodians rule at home
Iain Morse finds that local custodians dominate the Swiss market
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InterviewsNew birth for Neuberger
I first met Dik van Lomwel high up on a deserted floor of 25 Bank Street, Canary Wharf, almost exactly one year ago. The employees of Neuberger Berman, bought by Lehman Brothers in 2000, were the only people left, and the place had a melancholy air. “It’s a tragedy, what happened here,” he said. “Lehman was a genuinely nice place to work – how many firms on the Street had senior people who stuck around for so long? But now we have the opportunity to take that forward into the new firm.”
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Features
Untapped potential
Charlotte Adlung makes the case for Africa, warning that poor governance and infrastructure is the main stumbling block to investment
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Special Report
Thematic Investing: Nothing gained?
Venture capital has limited capacity, lacklustre returns and a mysterious risk profile that does not reward diversification. Martin Steward tries to find a place for it in pension fund portfolios
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Country Report
Finland: Temporary rules extend helping hand to long-term plans
An extension of temporary solvency and investment rules has helped pension funds to hold on to their long-term strategies, finds Reeta Paakkinen
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Country Report
Denmark: Where ATP leads...
The Danish pensions giant is renowned for cutting-edge work in liability-driven investment and separation of alpha and beta. But Martin Steward finds that the reality is different from what the buzzwords imply – and even more pioneering
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Country Report
France: Morning of a long day of mergers
Pirkko Juntunen assesses the changes in the French asset management landscape
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Country ReportFrance: Reforms on the starting line
Reform to the French social system is less politically unacceptable than it was a few years ago, writes Alain Lemoine
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Features
Pension Fund Horeca & Catering: Rare species
Liam Kennedy spoke with Ernst Hagen (pictured), head of asset management at Pension Fund Horeca & Catering (PH&C), which covers the Dutch hospitality sector
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Opinion PiecesDominique Senequier, chief executive of AXA Private Equity
“SWFs, being long-term investors with steady funding sources, will have a role to play in shaping the future landscape of private equity”
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Features
Do as I say, not as I do
Consider this statement by International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) member Patricia McConnell in June 2006: “Is General Motors necessarily bankrupt because it has a huge pension obligation? No, as long as you can look at future obligations and say it will pay down that liability.”
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Features
Funds boost engagement
Pension funds have stepped up their corporate engagement processes in 2010 with the widely-backed campaign for more disclosure on the costs and impacts of Canadian oil sands projects.
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Features
Preparing for the challenges ahead
The recent Global Pension Survey highlights a number of positive changes that pension fund managers are implementing to develop a business model that works in bull and bear markets alike. Changing demographics, pensions reforms in mature economies and fickle financial markets are creating strong tail-winds. But the ride will be ...
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Features
Keeping the global engine cool
Emerging markets might not have suffered the same financial pains as developed markets during the credit crisis, but Maha Khan Phillips finds they have a host of fiscal and monetary decisions to make as things get back to normal
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Features
BVK’s new risk criteria
Liquidity is now a key issue for the €43.2bn Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), Germany’s largest institutional investor, but the fund is not shying away from diversification.
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Opinion Pieces
The state we are in
In the US, most defined benefit (DB) pension schemes are public and their members are employees of states, municipalities and other local administrations. Their future to a great extent depends on their members’ unions: if the unions refuse to accept radical reforms in order to reduce the growing fund deficits, the current funding crisis will become explosive, say two new reports by independent research institutes. The budget season and the November elections are helping to draw attention to this vital issue.
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Opinion Pieces
IORPs back on agenda
A planned wide-ranging green paper on the state of pensions in the EU is causing anxiety in the industry. The ‘holistic’ approach of the European Commission policy paper – due to be presented in the summer – could throw into question the current ceasefire over the solvency issue for the ...
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Features
Cautious optimism in first GPS study
The first Global Pensions Survey (GPS) got off to a good start in February in the first phase of its launch, with a total of 78 European pension fund respondents from 16 countries in the initial round.
