Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 576
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Features
Finding a niche idea
Few European asset managers can boast the pedigree of the Swiss investment manager Pictet Asset Management. Pictet is the affiliate of banking group Pictet & Cie, one of the oldest private banks in Switzerland and currently celebrating 200 years in the money management business. Age brings wisdom, and one of ...
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Features
Funds: bouncing back
Alarm bells about the impending pension crisis seem to have faded away. US corporate and public pension funds have achieved good returns in 2004. If assets returns continue to perform in line with historical norms, and interest rates return to more normal levels, the funding pressures should ease, according to ...
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Features
Managers: focus on return
Last year US pension funds’ median return was 11.7% for corporate and 12.5% for public funds, according to Russell Mellon universes performance data – a good result. But it is the legacy of the past five years that has done the damage, with annual returns averaging just 3.6% for corporate ...
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Features
Retirement programmes: extreme makeover
With his mandate re-affirmed, Bush has prioritised two ambitious goals within the ‘ownership society’ – privatising social security and revamping the private pension system. Such boldness is not rhetorical: Bush’s previous term demonstrated a commitment to his fundamental agenda. The President has not previously shied from audacity; having been re-elected, ...
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Features
Only one strategy makes it
As can be seen from table 1, all hedge fund strategies fell short of their long-term average performance in January. Three out of five strategies even posted negative returns. These poor results, which are in sharp contrast to the good performance of Q4 2004, were mainly due to an unfavourable ...
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Features
Sophisticated Finns reap returns
In investment terms, Finland forms part of the Nordic region. As such, therefore, it is one of the most sophisticated European countries in relation to the private equity market.Finland invested 0.307% of its GDP in private equity in 2003, the last year for which figures are available from the European ...
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Features
Commodities 'bull market'
The only place where there is currently a pure bull market is in commodities, investment guru Jim Rogers told the SuperHedge conference in Frankfurt last month. Allaying investor fears that commodities are dangerous, the author of bestselling books ‘Hot Commodities’ and ‘Adventure Capitalist’ pointed out that economic history shows there ...
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Features
Aligning assets with liabilities
Investment managers have been quicker than government to respond to the liability matching needs of UK pension funds. Before the UK government had announced plans for 50-year bonds, two leading European fund managers had rolled out solutions of their own. Both solutions tackle the shortage of suitable pooled liability matching ...
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Features
Lego: piecing it together
When the founder of the Lego company, Ole Kirk Christiansen, came up with the brand name, he was apparently unaware that it means ‘I put together’ in Latin. It is appropriate in this context as that is exactly what the company, based in Billund, Denmark, has been doing recently with ...
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Features
Testing times for private accounts
If people are free to choose, they will choose freedom. This political philosophy, which was strongly embraced by Thatcher and Reagan in the 1980s, is now at the core of the Bush administration in every field, including economy. It is the very same principle that would justify a pension reform ...
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Features
Dealing with today's sharply increasing OPEB liabilities
The time may be right for employers to develop strategies for managing health benefits for retirees – so-called ‘other post-employment benefits’ (OPEB). Several factors are responsible for OPEB’s emergence as a major issue for employers. OPEB has become a significant operating statement cost and balance sheet liability. According to data ...
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Features
Real estate has proven its worth
It is that time of year again. Numbers have been crunched, figures analysed, reports prepared. Trustees have received information on the year just gone and for most it has not been too bad. In the UK and US, equities outperformed bonds. Okay, in much of continental Europe this was not ...
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Features
Greece looks to Ireland for reform model
The Greek government may turn to Ireland for “inspiration” on pension changes, a finance and economy ministry spokeswoman has said. The government is watching the changes launched in the EU member states with similar life expectancy problems for inspiration, the spokeswoman said. For the time being changes to the Greek ...
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Features
Hedge funds provide good return for Shell
Stichting Shell Pensioenfonds, the e13.7bn scheme of the oil giant, made a 6.9% return on its hedge fund investments in 2004. “On the hedge fund portfolio a return of almost 7% was achieved,” the scheme says in a statement on its website. Hedge funds, including currency hedging, account for 5.5% ...
