Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 433
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Features
Down to nothing
US President Obama has assumed control of a US economy beset by severe economic woes. With companies going bust, factories closing, businesses retrenching, jobs being lost at an unprecedented rate, consumer spending dropping like a stone, house prices tumbling, and homes repossessed, Obama’s task is both monumental and unenviable. Such ...
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FeaturesThe yoke of uncertainty
In ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, William Shakepseare describes a February face as “full of frost, of storm and cloudiness”. The turning of the year has certainly done little to lift the mood of institutional investors. After briefly warming to risky assets at the end of 2008, 2009 has begun with ...
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Features
A torrid year
After three months of significant losses, the stock markets managed a positive return (+1.06%) in December, with volatility remaining high (40%), albeit down to two-thirds of November’s level. Over the year, the S&P500 index registered a record loss of 37%. Once again, the commodities market registered a double-digit loss (-10.65%), ...
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Features
Trend-following slows losses
December offered some respite to the hedge fund industry at large from the string of losses seen in the last six months, with the composite Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index finishing the month up 0.9%. Funds of funds, however, returned -0.7% on average. December has traditionally been a positive month for ...
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Features
A two-way street
Nina Röhrbein spoke to Edwin Meysmans, managing director of Pensioenfonds KBC, about running a two-tier pension scheme and the different investment strategies necessary
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Features
Euro-zone challenges
The massive rise in debt issuance is posing problems for European government bond markets, finds Joseph Mariathasan
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Asset Class Reports
Dazed and confused
The causes and impact of the convulsions that have rocked the bond market for the last couple of years will be the subject of doctoral theses for generations to come. Joseph Mariathasan sketches out a first draft
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FeaturesThe market challenge of insurance
Sarah Dudney outlines success factors critical for asset managers operating in the insurance industry
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Features
Doing it whose way?
Frank Sinatra’s career was famously long-lived. It was also notable for a series of farewell concerts, at one of which the singer collapsed on stage. He was 78 at the time and died at 82. For DB pension funds, seeing members over 80 at annual pensioner meetings is not unusual, ...
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Features
Winning the ‘hearts and minds of men’
The global debt markets have experienced what Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his best- selling book described as a ‘Black Swan’ event. In other words, a market dislocation whose impact has been enormous, the full ramifications impossible to predict and, post the event, subject to rationalisation. The only thing that is ...
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FeaturesMinus five is the new zero
Absolute return strategies do not always produce absolute returns, and alternative investments are not always decorrelated from the mainstream. Long/short investors do not always have skill in shorting, let alone the long. Convertible arbitrageurs are not always able to arbitrage their convertibles. Leveraged strategies have seen their leverage dry up ...
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FeaturesDebt dilemmas
The chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), Sir David Tweedie, might do well to listen a little more closely to Berlin than to Washington. In line with problems outlined in November last year by the executive chairman of Germany’s DRSC accountancy standard setter, Heinz-Joachim Neubürger (see end), ...
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Features
Mixed feelings on hedge funds
Hedge funds attracted plenty of attention in 2008 for reasons such as the widespread lack of performance and the alleged Madoff fraud. This month’s Off The Record survey finds opinions divided on hedge funds, with equally strong views voiced by both those who invest in hedge funds and those who ...
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Alternative woes
We are evaluating - constantly - our exposure to alternatives. How innocuous that word ‘alternative’ sounds; it does not do justice to the magnitude of actual and potential losses. It is not because opportunities are not there, but it is the continuing outflows that threaten us and our managers. James, ...
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InterviewsNeed to ensure there’s transparency
Paul Kellerd (UK) Pension advisor to the EDS pension plans in the UK, which have invested assets of just over £1bn (€1.1bn) Although it is now quite common, in particular for larger UK funds, to invest in hedge funds, currently we don’t. However, we did conduct some due diligence with ...
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FeaturesDecision time
Gail Moss outlines structures and models for pension fund investment decision making
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FeaturesThe Achilles heel of DC plans
In the third in a series of articles, Amin Rajan argues that DC plans risk sparking a gigantic mis-selling scandal
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FeaturesTaxing developments
Peter Schonewille reports on infringement procedures against 14 EU member states over withholding tax, on a recent opinion on Finnish dividend taxation and on real estate taxation
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FeaturesBeware Japanese proverbs
The experience of Japanese pension funds in the 1990s provides an interesting lesson for Western investors, finds David White
