Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 680
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Features
Global players making inroads
When the Second Swedish National Pension Fund (AP2) appointed State Street to provide global investment services for its $14bn of assets under management in June this year, the move highlighted a disturbing trend for the Nordic region’s domestic global custodians. Are the region’s larger pension funds players and insurance companies ...
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Features
Variety of strategies
The HSBC Asian Equity Fund under HSBC’s SICAV Global Investment Fund series currently has $140m under management, with its Asia Equity OEIC counterpart running £40m. The month of October saw the fund return positive results of 5.47% after a fairly negative year, with the fund’s year-to-date returns currently sitting at ...
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Features
New government faces reform challenge
After its predecessor’s failure to push through a package of pensions reforms, the new government that took power in June will be trying again. The June elections once again returned a centre-left Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD)-dominated government. Unlike its predecessor, a minority administration that relied on the tacit support ...
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Features
Getting the money away
Italy’s part-privatised state electricity utility, the Ente Nazionale Per l’Energia Elettrica (Enel), operates two pension schemes – one for managers and the other for its employees. The arrangement has its advantages. The smaller white collar scheme has provided a ‘test bed’ for key changes to the larger blue collar scheme ...
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Features
Managing the investment portfolio
Senior managers at some of Europe’s top pension funds agree on one thing: that they are investing for the long term, though they differ on how to achieve their aims in terms of how they manage their funds, allocate assets and monitor their absolute returns. The executives were speaking at ...
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Features
Controlling your investment and other costs
Low management fees are not necessarily the best management fees, believe senior managers at some of Europe’s top pension funds. Addressing pension market professionals at the second seminar at the IPE Awards, the panel of five gave their opinions on how to control investment and other costs. The panel comprised ...
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Features
SFB aims to build with other funds
The Dutch pensions scene has to change, maintains Joep Schouten who heads the SFB Group, responsible for the asset and liability management of the Dutch building industry pension funds with assets of around E16bn. “In the Netherlands, there are over 1,000 pension funds for both company and industry-based pension funds. ...
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Features
Slow take-up for new approach
Two years after Norway introduced its long-awaited legislation to encourage the take up of defined contribution (DC) occupational pension plans, pension providers, asset managers and consultants are still waiting for the market to take off. The enabling legislation was supposed to light the fuse of DC plans by making them ...
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Features
Storebrand goes ahead of the curve
In an absence of any interest from existing corporate pension plans or pension trusts, Norway’s life insurers have become the main protagonists of the new tax favoured DC schemes. The insurers already dominate the management of occupational DB plans in Norway. Some NOK 300bn (E41bn) of pension fund assets are ...
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Features
The end of pension schemes?
The Irish regulatory authority, the Pensions Board, has begun to examine submissions from providers of Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs). PRSAs are a new type of investment vehicle, introduced under the 2002 Finance Act. They are intended to be a cheap, flexible and portable alternative for people who would not ...
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Features
The standardisation of Europe
One of more comforting features of pension funds around Europe is their national differences but with the forthcoming adoption of International Accounting Standards this is likely to change. This change will arise as the European Union has adopted a regulation requiring publicly traded companies in the European Union to apply ...
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Features
AP7's private equity choice
Sweden’s seventh national pension fund, AP7, has allocated $84m (e86m) to two US-based private equity fund of fund managers, Hamilton Lane Advisors and HarbourVest Partners. Hamilton Lane will be managing a US private equity fund of fund portfolio balanced between buyout, venture and special situation funds including secondary interests. AP7 ...
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Features
Taking the luck out of pooling
The major employee benefits networks are reporting their busiest periods for new business for some time. The existing total market of around 2,200 pools is likely to expand by 8% this year and there is more in the pipeline. This change in fortunes is not completely accidental. Behind the numbers ...
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Features
Infrastructure as an alternative
Recent global market turmoil has seen a rebalancing of many pension funds’ portfolios away from listed equities and a greater willingness on the part of institutional investors to examine alternative asset classes. There have been many reports of increased allocations to private equity and hedge funds as well as a ...
