Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 546
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Features
Italy's longer-term optimism
Italy does not have as consistent a private equity culture as other large European economies. Last year, private equity investment as a whole made up just 0.110% of its gross domestic product. This placed Italy twelfth in the European rankings, behind not only the traditional leaders in private equity in ...
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Features
Unicredito dips its toe
Unicredito Italiano Fondo Pensione Per Il Personale Delle Aziende Del Gruppo is the pension fund of the Unicredito international banking group. The company is the result of a merger between the Banco Unicredito, which is over a hundred years old, Credito Italiano, the German HIB bank and Bank Austria. The ...
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Features
Long/short strategies best
In September 2005, the major hedge fund strategies not only achieved positive returns but also significantly exceeded their long-term performance. Not surprisingly, the long/short equity strategy obtained the best performance in September in the midst of bullish stock markets (eg, +0.69% for the S&P 500), historically low levels of stock ...
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Features
Shallower returns
While the performance of funds of funds for August has been in keeping with the previous three months’ very positive and rising returns, the slope of the rise has taken a turn towards the shallow. The Eurekahedge Global Fund of Funds Index returned 0.8% in August (as compared with +1.6% ...
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Features
Investing with the grain
Oil is today’s news. Gold is always news. But what about wheat? Wheat is one of the agricultural commodities, the Cinderella sector of commodities. While energy and metals have attracted the attention of investors, agriculture - a so-called ‘soft’ commodity - has often been overlooked. Yet agricultural commodities have their ...
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Features
Are you listening?
Less than half of all EU member states were able to meet the 23 September deadline for telling the Commission that they had been able to fully implement the Institutions for Occupational Provision’s (IORP) directive, but many in the industry say this should not be a cause for concern. Previously, ...
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Features
Active returns dominate
ABP Dutch fund ABP - the largest pension fund in Europe with assets of e180bn - has made sweeping changes in the way it runs its portfolio in the last three years. The portion of its equities that was run on an indexed basis - 45-50% - was reduced ...
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Features
Specialist managers come into their own
The rationale for core-satellite investing is becoming more widely accepted - at least in theory - say asset managers, and the approach gives specialist active management a high profile role. Pension funds are increasingly adopting a core-satellite approach to their investment, says John Cleary, chief investment officer at Standard Asset ...
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Features
The fixed income game changes
As well as making sure the actively managed portions of their equity portfolios are working as hard as possible, institutional investors have also become more focused on how their fixed-income portfolios are managed. “In terms of targeting outperformance, I’ve noticed a real shift in the last few years,” says Paul ...
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Features
Return to balanced?
Changing views in the pensions industry on the role of active management within portfolios has led to a rise in new balanced mandates, say consultants. But is it really best to use a single investment house for such a wide variety of different assets? Anthony Ashton, head of global client ...
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Special Report
Transparent ownership
In Hermes’ view good management and good governance are synonymous. It is difficult to imagine a well managed company that has poor governance. All the evidence is that well governed companies do better and are more highly valued by the market. Furthermore, the improvement and the market’s appreciation of that ...
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Features
Reforms eluding Mañana market
Since joining the EU the Spanish economy has become one of the most dynamic in Europe. But as business flourishes in what was once a rather sleepy – not to mention sickly – backwater, old habits – and clichés – die hard as growth of the second pillar pensions system ...
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Features
Don't bank on it
Portugal’s pensions landscape is subject to a two-tier domination by the main banks which provide their clients with a range of financial services, including pension management. According to figures from APFIPP, the Portuguese Association of Investment Funds, Pension Funds and Asset Managers, the Pension Funds market consists of around E14.9bn. ...
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Features
Complex and difficult scene
Despite its under-developed second and third pillar pensions market, Spain is an attractive and competitive market for global custodians. With the European Commission in February urging the Spanish government to embrace pension reform “more vigorously”, there is plenty of scope for growth. Some attempts at reform have been made. The ...
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Features
New kid on the block
Build a better mousetrap, the saying goes, and the world will beat a path to your door. Build a better market index, and perhaps investors will do the same. Until recently, there has been a consensus in the investment community that the traditional broad market indices like the S&P 500 ...
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Features
Benchmarks bring business risk
Asset managers need to update their fixed income benchmarks each day to be able to judge how their portfolios are behaving in the market. They can lose serious money if the benchmark changes its exposure and their benchmark holdings are not up to date. Benchmark data comes from files supplied ...
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Features
Looking for the special effect
The development of the Euro-zone has led to the development of investment approaches that take a truly pan-European approach, ignoring country weightings in the search for the best opportunities in each sector. Small companies, however, are still more domestically focused and their behaviour tied more to the local index and ...
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Features
When markets turn from crisis
On 23 December 2001, the Argentinean government stopped servicing its debt. It was not the first time Argentina has defaulted – there have been four other occasions since the 1820s. It certainly was not the first default among emerging market sovereigns – Mexico, Pakistan, Ukraine, Ecuador, Russia and Indonesia have ...
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Features
Hedge funds under scrutiny
Until recently, hedge funds were considered as a ‘black box’ which aimed to deliver absolute returns and stipulated cash as a benchmark. Current research conducted at the London Business School’s hedge fund research centre focuses on two issues. The first pertains to the systematic risks of hedge fund strategies while ...
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Features
Maximising your potential
The balance between work and family is of crucial importance for the key challenge Europe is facing: how to enhance innovation by creating a competitive internal market with an adaptable work force while at the same time maintaining social cohesion. The reason is that human capital is the key to ...
