Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 496
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Features
New diversity in assets brings high returns
Over the past five years, the State Pension Fund of Finland (VER) has consistently developed its portfolio allocation and its asset management, bringing them up to international standards.Under this policy, a new neutral allocation and an alternative investments segment has been introduced to the portfolio. Other innovations include a new ...
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Features
Streamlined structure and clear-cut principles pay off
Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds Metalektro (PME), the €18bn pension fund for the Dutch mechanical and engineering industries, says its success is down to its streamlined and efficient structure and clear-cut principles that govern the way it works. To begin with, PME has a strong executive board that determines basic policy. This is supported ...
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Features
Strong funded position enhanced by returns
An exciting aspect of the European pension industry in recent years has been the attempts by governments to reform their pay-as-you-go systems and encourage the formation of capitalised funds to help bear the burden of providing post-retirement incomes for today’s employees. They may look to mature capitalised markets like the ...
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Features
Traffic light system sends out the right signals
In an increasingly complex and evolving German pension fund market, sustained yields and preservation of capital are essential. Given falling interest rates in the last few years, this is becoming an ever growing challenge. Germany’s Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), the pensions management company that runs 12 independent public sector and doctors ...
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Features
Strength in depth proves key to top award
To win an award of such high standing as the IPE Gold Award for Best European Pension Fund requires excellence across the board, not just in one particular aspect of a scheme’s set-up. For the award acknowledges not just past and present performance but the way the scheme view its ...
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Features
New company takes on the challenge of direct investment
ABP claims to be a trend-setter among pension funds in hedge funds, having incorporated the still somewhat feared alternative asset class into its investment strategy some four years ago.“The initial effort focused on hiring investment talent with hands-on experience in several hedge fund strategies as well as developing comprehensive due ...
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Features
Right asset mix ensures continued outperformance
Gildi, Iceland’s third biggest pension fund with €2.8bn under management entered the IPE Awards because it believes its portfolio management and excellent performance make it the small nation’s best pension fund. The judges agreed. “At 23%, our annual performance was the best for 2005 among pension funds in Iceland and ...
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Features
Market-making activities solve problems of dominant size
As a fund that is negotiating the uncharted waters of a young pensions industry, the €656m AZ Obligatory Pension Fund of Croatia has won the Best Innovation Award for its bold move in becoming a market maker in government bonds.The Croatian pension system was reformed in 2002, the changes closely ...
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Features
‘Smart’ diversification aids quest for stable high returns
Danish pension fund ATP has carried off the award for best liability-driven investment because of the innovative way it has transformed its business, creating a consistent framework not only for LDI, but also for investment-driven liabilities.The cornerstone of this approach is ATP’s belief that excellence in pension fund management requires ...
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Features
Strong, diversified returns repay pace-setting strategy
Since ABP set up its hedge fund strategy in 2002, it has been a pace-setter in the Dutch pensions community, and as such is a worthy winner of the Netherlands award. ABP was one of the first funds to build its own best-in-class hedge fund investment programme, on a ...
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Features
Proactive approach wins friends for default fund
With practically half a million members and pensioners in Sweden’s public sector, Kåpan Pensioner is a defined contribution scheme with a guaranteed rate of return and additional bonus. It is in competition with some of the major life insurance companies in Sweden, such as AMF and Skandia, as they can ...
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Features
Complexity makes life simpler for small fund
Thales Pensionskasse, the pension fund for the Swiss subsidiary of global aerospace, naval and engineering consultancy giant, Thales, may be small but that has not hindered its progress or its chances of winning an IPE Award for best country scheme. Established in 1996, the scheme is a defined contribution arrangement ...
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Features
Innovative approaches clinch joint awards
The Environment Agency is the leading public body for improving the environment in England and Wales, and its pension fund strongly believes that this corporate mission should also permeate its own investment strategy. The scheme’s aim is to obtain optimum risk-adjusted returns, and it believes that sustainable environmentally responsible investment ...
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Features
The Spanish road towards multi-management
Over the past few years Spanish pensions have begun to focus more on equities and started to embrace multimanager strategies. Xavi Bellavista and Ignasi Puigdollers report
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Features
Backdrop to the Pacific century
Richard Newell looks at some of the key dynamics at play in the Asian region
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Features
Investing through the FII route
India has made great strides in attracting foreign investment and there is no shortage of high quality asset managers operating in the region, writes Richard Newell
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Features
The FII approval process
Vikrant Gugnani, CEO of Reliance Mutual Fund in Mumbai explains the background to the foreign investment rules: “FIIs were first allowed to invest in India in 1992. Initially the FII holdings in any company were subject to various investment limits. Also funds invested by FIIs had to have at least ...
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Features
Politics holds up full implementation
Susan Thomas explains how India is tackling the largely structural issues of pensions development, given its demographic advantage compared to other countries
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Features
Neatly stacking your alpha
Separating investments into alpha and beta portfolios is only part of the story. Jason C Hsu explains the concept of alpha stacking
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Features
Learning from your mistakes
Five years on one of the biggest stock market bubbles ever, investors such as fund manager Cliff Asness still bear the scars from being a tech-bubble naysayer. Richard Newell reports
