Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 589
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Features
Dipping your toe in the pool
With computer giant IBM now apparently re-thinking the idea of pooling its European pension assets because of uncertainty over tax harmonisation, where exactly does that leave the whole pooling and pan-European pensions debate? In short, can pooling deliver on the hype? The company is understood to be unwilling to commit ...
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Features
Global plans' elusive results
At least three issues are raising the stakes for better management of retirement plans across borders: plans are more likely to be in deficit, accounting standards are driving increased transparency and there is a greater focus on corporate governance worldwide. But success is elusive for many. Most multinationals encounter significant ...
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Features
Scanning the future at ABP
At ABP Investments - part of ABP, the Dutch civil servants pension fund (e160bn) - a disciplined three-stage approach is being used for scanning the future and interpreting current developments on financial markets. Both strategic and tactical asset allocation, asset/liability management, stress testing and the preparation of investment plans, benefit ...
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Features
Danes become more focused
Pension funds are the most important source of private equity finance in Denmark, easily outstripping corporate investors, banks and insurance companies. Even so, they have recorded a sizeable increase in investment over the past year. In 2002, the percentage of Danish private equity investment raised from pension funds was 33.4%, ...
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Features
Running it all in-house
ATP Private Equity Partners (ATP PEP) is the private equity arm of the statutory pension provision fund ATP. It was set up in 2001. “ATP wanted some exposure to private equity for the purposes of diversification, as well as for superior returns,” says Jens Bisgaard-Frantzen, managing partner, ATP PEP. “At ...
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Features
Emerging markets deliver goods
Absolute Return Funds (ARFs) returned on average 3.2% for the month of November and an impressive 9.5% for eleven months of the year. Within the Absolute Return universe, Eurekahedge has categorised funds into bottom up, top down, dual approach, and diversified debt, of which over 150 are listed in its ...
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Features
Thinking about direct
The City of Zurich of Pension Fund, with assets of CHF 11.4bn (e7.4bn), moved into hedge fund investment at the end of 2000 with a hedge fund allocation of 2.5% which increased to 5% at the beginning of 2002. The main aim was risk diversification, says Vera Kupper Staub, the ...
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Features
What credit ratings offer
It is increasingly accepted that defined benefit (DB) pension scheme deficits are ‘debt like’ in nature and that the financial strength of the sponsor is one of the key factors that determines the security of the scheme itself. A key measure of a sponsor’s financial strength is its credit rating. ...
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Features
Finns take a wrong turn
From January the mode of calculating the parliamentary pension in Finland will be changed. The pension will be calculated on the basis of the salary during the whole mandate of the member of parliment (MP); currently the pension is calculated on the basis of the salary of the last month’s ...
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Features
Govvies back in the limelight
In these times of greatly diversified capital markets within Europe and exciting developments in corporate bonds, high yield or credit derivatives, it has become uncommon for the very low yielding government bond markets to be the real focus of investor attention. But as European and US interest rates have started ...
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Features
The 'shadow' ECB
At the end of 2002 the editor of the German daily Handelsblatt decided it might be an interesting idea to get together a group of leading European economists and strategists and let them shadow the European Central Bank’s decisions and actions on European monetary policy. Today that group of 18, ...
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Features
Doing it in phases
There is no doubt that reallocating millions in portfolio assets carries huge risks. But while transition managers can smooth the more complex asset shifts and keep costs and dangers to a minimum, there are often less expensive ways of dealing with change, say consultants. Typically, pension funds are turning to ...
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Features
Plus ça change plus...
Change can be good for business. And if you are a transition manager, then definitely. The widespread rethinking of portfolio composition by institutional investors has given a boost to the transition management sector, even if the market slump that precipitated it has eroded the pension assets themselves. Transition management is ...
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Features
Working to standards
Eighteen months ago, consultants and managers Russell kick-started the process of establishing a standard for measuring portfolio performance during transitions. The result is the T Standard, which sets out the success and performance of a transition. “From the word go, we didn’t want to say that Russell says this is ...
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Features
Flying below the radar
The E400m Belgian industry-wide construction scheme, FSE-FBZ, finished a major asset transition in May last year. The scheme is essentially a social fund, of which part will become a pension fund in the future. It was due to this change that restructuring was being undertaken. Because of the size of ...
