Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 549
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Special Report
Too bitter a pill to swallow
Major European pension institutions such as ABP, USS and Hermes are among a group of institutional investors that have launched a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp over a poison pill arrangement. Investors participating include Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme and Hermes Investment Management. The group seeks ...
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Features
How secure is your lending?
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries – Ireland, Denmark and the Netherlands – the same question: ‘Does securities lending represent free revenue for pension funds or does it carry underestimated risks?’ Here are their answers: Michael Nellemann Perdersen, CIO at PKA, which groups eight pension funds in ...
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Features
Starting a system from scratch
The office of Mikhel Oim, executive chairman of Hansa Fund Management, is in Tallinn’s burgeoning modern business sector, which spreads out below the picturesque old walled town. Its location mirrors the country’s pensions sector, which has seen new second and third pillar schemes grafted onto a crumbling Soviet-era PAYG first ...
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Features
Working compromise
The Finnish government is the envy of its European counterparts when it comes to the pensions issue. Old age pensions have a minimal impact on Finland’s fiscal situation as no public money goes towards them, the budget only being called upon to provide a basic state pension for those with ...
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Special Report
Seeing the wood
The principle of keeping things simple may well turn out to be critical in gaining widespread acceptance of environmental reporting requirements. Simon Thomas is chief executive at Trucost, a research consultancy which specialises in measuring the impact companies have on the environment. He refers to a recent report compiled by ...
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Special Report
Inclusion boosts engagement
In September independent Stockholm-based SRI analysis house GES Investment Services launched a web-based extension to its active engagement service that will enable its institutional investor clients to become more involved in the engagement process. “There is a need for an engagement/discussion forum for clients,” says GES marketing director Henrik Af ...
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Features
Beyond 'custody'
Something funny happened to the custody business on the way to the 21st century: ‘custodians’ effectively became ‘financial services providers’. The term ‘custodian’ is still widely used, of course, but custody provision itself is no longer a real differentiator in the market. All of the established providers do custody well, ...
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Features
Three things for a great business
Historically the New York-based asset manager BlackRock International has never set out to be a big hitter. It has preferred to build up its score steadily. Ralph Schlosstein, the co-founder and president of BlackRock agrees that, for the fixed income business for which his firm is best known, this an ...
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Features
Long bond dangers
Surely I can not be the only person concerned at the recent headline in the UK’s Financial Times, ‘UK finds success in a 50-year linker’. The UK government marked a milestone in bond market history in September by raising £1.25bn (e1.8bn) with the sale of the world’s first 50-year inflation-linked ...
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Features
Innovation drives success
How does one manage an €18bn pension fund with only three staff? Most people would say the three staff have to work very hard. While that is correct, one then asks, how this fund manages to rank amonge the best returns within the industry with a strong funding position? The ...
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Features
Smoke alarm at risk
In 1997 Deutsche Bank, the parent of the UK asset manager Morgan Grenfell (now Deutsche Asset Management) paid £220m (e322m) in compensation to clients of funds run by one of Morgan Grenfell’s managers, Peter Young, who had lost money on investments in unlisted companies, The bank was also fined a ...
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Features
Norway starts mandatory pensions
The Norwegian government has put into motion the process of setting up a mandatory occupational pensions regime that could affect up to 600,000 people. The proposed new law will come into affect from next year and follows a white paper and consultation period. The parliament, the Storting, decided in May ...
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Features
Pensionsfonds bright future
Aleading German pensions adviser, Richard Herrmann of consulting firm Heubeck, sees a strong future for German Pensionsfonds. The funds - Germany’s answer to the equity-oriented Anglo-Saxon pension fund - should double their assets every two years now that the government has boosted their competitiveness, he says. In implementing the EU ...
