All articles by Liam Kennedy – Page 6
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Country ReportCountry Report – Pensions in Central & Eastern Europe (January 2022)
A combination of poor policy decisions and conservative asset allocations have conspired to stifle the development of supplementary pensions in the CEE region since the widespread adoption of the World Bank’s three-pillar model in the 1990s, as IPE Editor Liam Kennedy writes in this issue.
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FeaturesStrategically speaking: IFM Investors
When IFM Investors and its fellow consortium members cracked open the bubbly last month on their successful bid for Sydney Airport following a third revised offer, it marked a bet on a vigorous and sustained recovery in passenger aviation. After all, airports globally, including Sydney, had come to resemble “parking lots for planes”, in the words of IFM Investors CEO David Neal.
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Opinion PiecesGetting ahead of the skill curve
Twenty years ago, in December 2001, Denmark’s giant labour market pension fund ATP implemented an interest-rate swap. That doesn’t seem too shocking now as liability-driven investment (LDI) is a mature and well-understood concept that is embedded in pension risk-management and regulatory practice.
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Special ReportSpecial Report – Prospects 2022 for European Institutional Investors
It’s all about inflation, stupid! Well, yes and no. While inflation is one of the top concerns raised by contributors to our vox-pop section on the economic outlook, growth and interest rates feature highly too. On the topic of inflation, EFG Bank’s Stefan Gerlach outlines why inventors should look at the underlying components of headline inflation numbers. We also look at the NextGenerationEU bond issuance programme, and the implications on the bond market. And energy specialist Cyril Widdershoven outlines the case for oil and gas as a transition play.
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News
Biodiversity on the agenda: thoughts from COP26
‘If we don’t solve the problems of tropical rainforests we lose the fight against climate change’
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InterviewsStrategically speaking: Finreon
Established 12 years ago as a spin-off from Switzerland’s renowned University of St Gallen, Finreon is a quant asset management specialist that styles itself as an investment adviser and a think tank. It has recently weighed into the debate on portfolio decarbonisation with a novel solution for listed equities.
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Special ReportMoney and commitment needed
The term ‘net zero’ is becoming entrenched in political and business life as governments, banks, insurers, asset owners and, not least, corporates sign up to demanding pledges to reduce carbon emissions in the service of limiting global temperature rises to within 1.5°C.
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Opinion PiecesEngagement, divestment and emerging alternatives
Investment analysts make contrasting buy and sell recommendations for individual securities based on identical financial information – down to the last decimal point. The differential is judgement.
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Special ReportBT Pension Scheme: Ambitious 2035 net-zero target
The pension scheme has set itself a series of tough climate objectives
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News
Iceland’s central bank governor backs greater foreign investment
Move could see €6.5bn shift to foreign managers
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Special ReportInvesting in China
Investors the world over are thinking about China, from Soros to Mr and Ms Main Street. Our contribution to this theme (written before the Evergrande story broke) looks at both private and public equity, where managers are looking to align portfolios with China’s long-term investment needs. From a manager selection perspective, boots plus portfolio managers on the ground were an essential ingredient for successful portfolio positioning ahead of the July regulatory crackdown.
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FeaturesStrategically Speaking: Aviva Investors
Insurance-owned asset managers can be difficult to pigeonhole. Some have forged strong specialisms, often in fixed income, but now also in alternatives like property or niche credit. Others have remained a corporate backwater absorbed by group general-account assets.
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Opinion PiecesAn alternative pensions future
It’s no real news that ageing is changing our society in numerous ways – from simple things like product design (making smart phones for older eyes and fingers to use) to more generationally diverse workplaces.
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InterviewsInterview: Lars Dijkstra, Van Lanschot Kempen
Lars Dijkstra, Van Lanschot Kempen’s new head of sustainability, explains his new role at the recently combined asset management franchise
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FeaturesStrategically speaking: Goldman Sachs Asset Management
If you are a pension fund, insurer or sovereign wealth fund and you haven’t heard from Goldman Sachs already, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that they want to talk to you – about a variety of alternative investment opportunities they want to put your way as a potential debt or equity fund investor, co-investor or all three.
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Opinion PiecesPolicy underpins action
Politicians in a variety of different places understandably want to harness the capital of institutional investors. Dutch and UK politicians in particular have made no secret of their desire for local pension funds to invest for domestic ends.
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Asset Class ReportsUK Micro Caps: Below the line of abandonment
Kestrel Partners exploits a structural inefficiency in the UK’s micro-cap market
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Special ReportTop 1000 Pension Funds 2021: Powering on ahead
With a gross headline increase in pension assets of over €800bn – or 9.8% – Europe’s pension fund asset pools can be said to have powered through the COVID-19 crisis, riding the market highs to bank a solid recovery.
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News
GSAM plans European fiduciary expansion following NNIP deal
US firm to become a top-10 European institutional manager following €1.6bn acquisition
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Opinion PiecesGovernance must be the embedded solution
Europe now has approaching two decades of experience with the investment outsourcing that is loosely called fiduciary management, or sometimes outsourced CIO (OCIO), to use the US terminology.
