Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 653
-
Features
Nestle stays ahead of the pack
The €4bn Nestlé pension fund in Switzerland has perhaps gone farthest down the road of any European pension fund in embracing alternative investment in the pursuit of absolute returns. Its current exposure of 15% of assets to hedge funds is probably the largest of any pension fund in the world. ...
-
Features
Come on in, the water's lovely
Alternative investment strategies are registering notably high satisfaction rates in terms of performance among European institutional investors – despite the three-year bear market. The percentage of investors whose returns have so far met or exceeded expectations ranges from 66% for private equity, 79% for hedge fund investment and impressive figures ...
-
Features
New twist to an old idea
After an investor approves an allocation to funds of hedge funds the question arises of which structure to use. For many, the most common form of investment will be through shares in an open-ended company, often set up as a limited liability partnership, or through one of many structured products ...
-
Features
A punt on paint
If you’re looking for an example of a sector pension funds should avoid, first impressions suggest fine art is hard to beat. Prices are difficult to predict, pieces can take ages to sell and trading costs and insurance are high. Annual dividends are non-existent, periods move in and out of ...
-
Features
Art for investment's sake
Any dealer will give prospective investors the same advice – spend as much as you can afford, buy the very best work available and be prepared to hold on to it for 10 years. This mantra is central to the ethos of Philip Hoffman’s new Fine Art Fund. Hoffman, a ...
-
Features
Taking a shine to gold
A liquid asset with low correlation with equities and fixed income and negative correlation with the dollar should be relatively easy to sell. Yet funds have shown an almost complete aversion to gold. A raft of new investment products and a sustained educational campaign by the World Gold Council (WGC), ...
-
Features
PIPE of peace
Few financing structures in recent memory have had the impact of private investments in public equity (PIPEs). Privately negotiated equity or equity-linked securities issued by public companies, PIPEs gained notoriety during the tech boom. Their standing soared and then crashed with the Nasdaq. But these structures have reclaimed some of ...
-
Features
Mainstream or not?
The poor performance of major equity markets in recent years and falling bond yields have encouraged greater focus on so-called ‘alternative assets’. Commercial property investment is often conveniently placed in this category, along with private equity and hedge funds. But is such a classification helpful or meaningful? The term ‘alternative’ ...
-
Features
On the rails
The emergence of infrastructure as an asset class has largely been driven by macroeconomic factors, explaining to some extent the varying stages of maturity in different countries. Traditionally governments have facilitated investment in infrastructure either by directly financing and building roads, railways, electricity grids and telephone lines, or by subsidising ...
-
Features
Safe in the forest
Forestry investment has attracted increasing attention in recent years from pension fund managers looking for alternatives to the uncertainty and lower returns experienced with the major asset classes. A key feature of Irish forestry investments has been the steady positive real rate of return, with the lowest volatility of any ...
-
Features
How much should be allocated to alternatives?
A new study carried out by Dexia Asset Management shows the benefits of allocating 15% to 20% of a portfolio to alternative funds. Finding a good balance between risk and return is the first aim of any investment strategy. Modern portfolio management theory suggests diversification, so as to cope with ...
-
Features
Gaining efficient access to hedge fund strategies
Funds of hedge funds (FoHF) have become a popular way for new hedge fund investors, both private and institutional, to gain access to the attractive performance characteristics of hedge fund strategies. These products provide investors with efficient exposure to a diverse range of alternative investment strategies and the unique skills ...
-
Features
The benefit of the relative value strategy
Besides being an asset class in their own right, hedge funds can also be considered and used as a diversification tool within a specific traditional asset class. To incorporate hedge funds as a separate asset class into a global diversified portfolio, it is recommended to select the appropriate number of ...
