Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 497
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Features
Green focus sets examples in returns and culture
The Bonus Pensionskassen opted as early as 1998 to adopt a sustainable socially responsible investment strategy. “We recognised way back then that companies that managed in a so-called ‘sustainable’ manner represented good long-term value and produced more attractive returns,” the scheme says. Since then, Bonus claims it has consistently implemented ...
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Stress-tests build confidence in future funding levels
Founded in 1968, Amonis is the professional pension scheme for Belgium’s doctors, dentists and pharmacists. It is a hybrid defined benefit and defined contribution structure with €932m under management for some 23,300 active members and 3,500 pensioners. Amonis entered the IPE Awards on the back of its confidence in the ...
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Features
Innovation is watchword for scheme that makes most of new legislation
Robert Bosch, a leading German industrial company with 250,000 employees worldwide, of whom 110,000 are in Germany, established its pension scheme, Bosch Pensionsfonds (BPF), in 2002, making full use of legislation in Germany encouraging the creation of funded pension schemes to replace the traditional but somewhat creaking pay-as-you-go and Pensionskassen ...
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Small scheme that thinks big
Don’t be fooled by size. Small can be beautiful. The Robert Bosch scheme is small but it has a big heart and even bigger ambition. It has already notched up a series of firsts: first Pensionsfonds-type scheme to be offered by an industrial group in Germany; the first to receive ...
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Features
Setting new standards for Polish corporate governance
As a former member of the Eastern Bloc and a new member of the EU, Poland is experiencing not only rapid economic growth but a fundamental restructuring of its economy. So the development of good corporate governance standards among the investing community is not only a necessity, it is a ...
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Features
Deficit addressed without sacrifice of DB principles
Pension fund deficits have led to increasing pressure for the funds themselves to switch from a defined benefit (DB) to a defined contribution (DC) basis - and this generally means reduced benefits for scheme members. Like many other British DB schemes, the BAE Systems Pension Scheme faced the challenge of ...
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Joining forces to cut costs and boost capacity
Innovation “is our competitive advantage,” boasts Denmark’s PKA Pension Funds collective. It cites four areas it believes backs up this claim: its outsourcing strategy, socially responsible investments, its real estate portfolio and its hybrid structure. “The innovation in outsourcing was to achieve an effective administration policy,” the fund says. A ...
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Direct investment provides instant diversification
Established in 1992, Denmark’s Industriens Pension (IP) is a young scheme, and perhaps its youth explains its dynamic approach to private equity at a time when older, somewhat more established, schemes still regard the burgeonig asset class with a degree of scepticism and reserve. But that does not mean it ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...
