All IPE articles in March 1997 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Special Report
Shareholder value: a new term for an old problem
Han Kleiterp describes the dilemmas facing those institutional investors seeking shareholder value
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Features
Unilever: was it a matter of style?
How did Gartmore Fund Managers come to lose £1bn worth of Unilever’s pensions business? When the £3.5bn Unilever pension fund announced last month that it was withdrawing its £1bn mandate from Gartmore and appointing new external managers instead, shock waves went round the City of London. According to Watson Wyatt’s ...
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Features
Irish start on pensions reform
Ireland has taken the first step towards reform of its occupational pensions sector with the launch of the National Pensions Policy Initiative. The publication, on the 13 February, of a 72-page government document setting out possible policy courses marked the start of a national consultation exercise. The deadline for responses ...
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Features
Norway: Phillips widens horizons
Phillips Petroleum in Norway is looking for investments beyond the domestic bond market, because of the relatively flat prospects for growth this year, but it currently holds the maximum allowed for domestic and in-ternational equity portfolios. The fund, which manages approximately $200m, has 70% of its holdings in domestic bonds, ...
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Features
'Optimise' for a happier risk-return marriage
Financial optimisation techniques are extremely useful tools, say Ronald Layard-Liesching and Constantine Ponticos
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Features
Getting Japan's weighting right
The traditional methods of setting a weight for Japan in international portfolios have given investors a false idea of the market’s significance, argues John Morrell
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Features
Italian pension funds on standby
Over 800 hundred pension funds, created by Italian banks, insurance companies and mutual funds are awaiting the final decree in a series issued by the Italian government since the start of the year which will officially set up private pension provision. This decree, which is considered the most important is ...
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Features
Russia puts funds on firmer footing
Russian investment funds, illegitimately described as pensions funds will be forced to drop the name, when a pensions bill, strengthening the Russian pensions inspectorate and currently progressing through the Duma, becomes law. Russia’s 200 non-state pension funds involving the savings of 1.5 million Russians will also b e given a ...
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Features
Military minds train on financial targets
Military strategists are moving their skills to the trading floors near Bank in the City of London. BZW announced at the beginning of this year that it had teamed up with the Ministry of Defence. It has joined with the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) and DERA’s support services ...
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Features
French equity funds sparkle in the run-up to EMU
David Hunt looks at the domestic and offshore choice
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Features
Dutch funds get taste for equities
Rachel Fixsen finds a shift away from the safety of bonds
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Features
Netherlands: Diversify and prosper
For the past few years, institutional investors in the Netherlands have been steadily adding international securities to their portfolios. This has prompted discussion of the benefits of diversification and of the management of the associated currency exposure. Our research shows that optimum diversification outside the Netherlands is far greater than ...
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Features
SSGA's direct venture
Prompted by demand from institutional and other clients, State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) are extending their investment activities into direct equity investment and other alternative asset classes. In the first of what a company spokesman said should be a series of similar moves in 1997 and beyond, SSGA have announced ...
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Features
Papering over the cracks
Crisis in the Japanese pensions provision is providing new opportunities for investment advisers, as major corporates rethink their strategies. George Curuby reports Mounting pressure on Japanese plan sponsors has resulted recently in a torrent of new mandates for investment advisers. The fundamental problems of sponsors are being exposed by the ...
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Features
French company schemes 'a winner', says survey
The new French company pensions law should be a guaranteed success according to a survey carried out by Frank Russell Paris for Groupe AXA. Sixty-nine per cent of the companies surveyed aim to set up plans under the new law. A total of forty companies responded to the survey, carried ...
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Features
UK committee criticised for pensions recommendations
The UK-centred debate over Europe’s pensions liability and its affect on EMU heated up last month when a lobbying group published a paper criticising the Parliamentary Social Security Committee for recommending that unfunded pensions liabilities should be included in the EMU convergence criteria. In addition, in mid-February, the committee held ...
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Features
System comes under strain
A number of reports over the past year have lifted the lid off the simmering pot of pensions discontent within corporate Japan. The picture is one of a system in deep crisis and widespread fears that things will get worse. Late last year 71 corporate pensions plans issued a report ...
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Features
Change at political pace
With a new pensions law in place, the investment climate in France is changing, despite the government’s timidity on financial reform and public opposition to planned privatisations. John Lappin reports The historic exterior of the Paris Bourse belies the dynamism with which it is stealing a march on other markets ...
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Features
Cash: Cashing in on the fear factor
Institutional cash funds take on the banks, reports Rachel Oliver
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Features
USA: US markets still in business
Optimism, albeit cautious, about the US equity market is the view emanating from Trish Bridson, assistant director and head of North American equities at Kleinwort Benson in London. She says: “We see growth of between eight and 10%, driv-en mainly by earnings growth which we also think will grow by ...
