Latest Special Reports – Page 8
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Special ReportPension funds should seriously consider venture capital
To fulfil their role, pension funds would be well-advised to invest more in European private equity and venture capital
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Special ReportManager selection: Solving the pension liquidity puzzle
Advisers and fiduciary managers are working as hard as ever to meet the liquidity needs of pension funds
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Special ReportRound table: Manager selection priorities for 2024
IPE asked eight manager research business leaders: what will be the three most important topics or trends in manager selection over the next 12 months and beyond?
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Special ReportNatural capital special report: Getting to grips with the TNFD
More than 100 financial institutions have formally committed to adopting the recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. Here’s how some of them are getting on so far
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Special ReportAGM season preview: nature at the ballot box
Despite the backlash against ESG, biodiversity risks will be on the agenda during the next round of shareholder meetings
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Special ReportInvestors engage with corporates on nature issues
Shareholders are ramping up their stewardship efforts on key topics like deforestation and biodiversity
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Special ReportBiodiversity: bridging policy and finance
Governments and pension funds can leverage new capital markets instruments to meet the twin challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change
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Special ReportNew regulations tackle water insecurity
The new European Sustainability Reporting Standards’ E3 tackles the complex and diverse realm of water insecurity
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Special ReportRisk transfer special report: Pension liabilities shift to insurers
New players are waiting to enter the UK pension risk transfer market but this will depend on how accommodating Solvency UK will be
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Special ReportAllianzGI partners with DBR to offer pension risk transfer
A new joint venture allows corporates to offload pension obligations to an innovative corporate structure
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Special ReportFiduciary management special report: Has the UK peaked?
After years of growth throughout the 2010s, the number of fiduciary mandates has levelled off. Will trustees still opt for fiduciary now that insurance risk transfer is cheaper and consolidator funds have received the green light?
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Special ReportClass actions by European investors on the rise in the name of good governance and fiduciary duty
Deepwater Horizon, Volkswagen (Dieselgate), Wirecard, Silcon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse are recent, high-profile examples of corporate wrong doing resulting in losses for investors. As stewards of retirement savings and guardians of beneficiaries’ interests, it is only natural that pension funds should scrutinise the investments they are making – or outsourcing to asset managers to make – on their members’ behalf. This is a central plank of fiduciary duty.
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Special ReportProspects special report 2024: CIOs on what awaits investors
Asset management CIOs and strategists answer key questions about investment for the 12 months and beyond
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Special ReportEuropean pension fund class actions take off on a steep learning curve
What positive developments can we report relating to class actions in UK and European pension funds? What regulatory challenges still need to be overcome to facilitate (for instance, simplify) the environment for class action by UK and European institutions? Where are the key gaps in knowledge among pension funds?
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Special ReportClass actions: Is Europe catching up with the US?
Europe’s institutional investors are latching on to the rewards of joining class actions against investee companies. Many of these are securities lawsuits, pursued when a publicly listed company has not properly disclosed or has misrepresented significant information, affecting the share price when the truth emerges. But so far, the vast majority of these have been in the US. In 2022, nearly $4.9bn (€4.6bn) was recovered in the US courts, according to Institutional Shareholder Services. So, what about class actions in Europe? “The US has had a class action system for over a hundred years that can be adopted for almost every cause of action, whereas the UK has only had class actions since 2015 and it is only available for competition cases,” says Harry McGowan, partner in the securities litigation department at law firm Stewarts.
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Special ReportShareholder class actions in Europe: the benefits and risks of participating
Litigation outside the United States, and in particular in Europe, has been on the rise since the US Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank. In Morrison, the US Supreme Court ruled that “foreign” (non-US) investors cannot bring federal securities lawsuits in US courts to recover investment losses relating to foreign-issued securities traded on foreign exchanges (known as “F-cubed” claims). As former Justice Antonin Scalia explained, the concern was to prevent the US from becoming “the Shangri-La” of class-action litigation for lawyers representing those allegedly cheated in foreign securities markets. Although federal courts have since struggled to apply Morrison’s effect test consistently, it is clear, more than 10 years later, that the decision has had its intended effect.
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Special ReportUSS settlement with Petrobras and PWC Brazilian subsidiary
In February 2018, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) reached a settlement with PWC’s Brazilian subsidiary as part of a class action lawsuit against Petrobras.
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Special ReportAP7 notches up legal success against Kraft Heinz
In May 2023, Sweden’s AP7 fund recorded a significant victory for Swedish and other investors when US food giant Kraft Heinz agreed to settle a class action lawsuit for $450m (€421m).
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Special ReportColorado fire and police settle with Cognizant
In August 2021, Fire and Police Pension Association Colorado (FPPA), alongside other plaintiffs, reached a settlement with Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation for $95m (€88.7m).
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Special ReportBuilding a class action toolbox for investors
As class actions have started to play an increasingly important role in good governance for UK and European pensions funds, the need to establish best practice in the field is growing.
