Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 733
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Special Report
Added impetus for SRI?
The UK government has announced in its response to the consultation on principles of operation for UK pension schemes proposed by Paul Myners that it will legislate to incorporate the US ERISA principles on shareholder activism into UK law. This would make it a duty for fund managers and pension ...
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Features
The attractions of real estate
UK and other European pension funds are going to have start taking property seriously again. It has taken some time but over the 10 years to 30 September 2001 property has at last overtaken the other main asset classes. With UK equities returning 10.1 % per annum, overseas equities ...
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Features
Tracking the differences
The main marketing problem faced by index-tracking investment managers is the difficulty of differentiating themselves from the competition. Understandably, index-tracking investment management is often regarded as a commodity product and, like most of these products, it is price that matters. For index-trackers, the price is specifically the ongoing management charge ...
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Features
Cutting the cake
When considering how the assets of a pension fund should be split, remember that ancient proverb: “Have your cake and eat it too.” In my view, a pension fund should aim to maximise returns over the long term without taking egregious degrees of risk. If we look at the returns ...
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Features
Stop indexing: go passive
It is nearly four decades since Bill Sharpe’s Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). We think it is time to take his work seriously and to change many of our cherished beliefs on portfolio structures. There are two striking conclusions. First, we should exclude all references to asset categories such as ...
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Features
What's needed for bond indexation
The reputation of full-blown active portfolio management waned during the 1970s: the reliance on the manager’s gut feeling proved too narrow and insecure a basis to build consistent performance on. Furthermore, the sponsors wanted to exert a stricter risk control on their fund managers. There are several reasons for considering ...
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Features
Governance: for the people but not by the people?
In this month’s Off The Record we broach the subject of pension fund corporate governance (PFG) and ask whether schemes need to get their house in order and if so how can it be done. PFG has been described as asking: “Is the business being done properly?” and, happily, Off ...
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Features
Time to re-examine hedge strategies
We fielded a barrage of calls from the press in the immediate aftermath of September 11’s attacks. Typically, they only needed a quotation or two on what the implications were for hedge funds. However, with about 40 mid-month fund returns to go on, our reply was that hedge fund strategies ...
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Features
The hunt for 'decorrelation'
In a climate of low interest rates and low growth, pension funds are finding it increasingly difficult to earn a reasonable return without an unacceptable increase in risk. A bull market in equities is now a distant memory, and returns from equities and bonds continue to converge. This is creating ...
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Features
Route-maps to transparency
Few of us walk down the street with a blindfold on – too many bollards, other pedestrians, plus the possibility of something unsavoury underfoot. Similarly, transparency provides investors with some comfort of arrival at the expected level of returns, with relatively few stumbles along the way. Conventional long-only funds, operating ...
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Features
Clamour for information
Over the past year hedge funds have boomed. An estimated $8.4bn (€ƒ9.2bn) flooded into the sector in the second quarter of this year, and new alternative investment firms seem to appear on a weekly basis. But as capital flows towards hedge funds, there is a growing demand for greater transparency ...
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Features
Getting to grips with fund of funds managers
Hedge funds seek to make money in markets irrespective of market direction – a laudable aim, particularly in the current uncertain times. Hedge fund managers have the ability to leverage up if they are overwhelmed by opportunities, or go into cash if market conditions are not promising for their particular ...
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Features
Making introductions
Until recently placing money with a hedge fund manager was predominantly done through small independent companies offering what is known as capital raising or contract marketing. In practice hedge funds lacking the resources to fund their own sales teams employ someone independent. Typically that someone might be Arpad Busson running ...
