All IPE articles in November 2001 (Magazine) – Page 3

  • Features

    High-yield at low ebb

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    The Merrill Lynch High Yield Master Index in September suffered its biggest monthly fall since its inception. It declined –6.42% during the month, taking its third-quarter fall to –6.07%, which in itself was the biggest such drop since the third quarter of 1990. In addition, the spread versus Treasuries at ...

  • Features

    Markets have embraced 'V' shaped recovery

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    Equity markets, which plunged in the aftermath of the terrible events of 11 September, have more than made up the lost territory in the past few weeks. On the surface, this suggests that nothing material happened on the day of the attacks. Obviously, this is wrong. The world has changed ...

  • Features

    Pension funds hit hard by equities slump

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    The growth of an equity culture has been one of the success stories of continental European investment over the past 10 years, and pension funds have been an important part of this. Funds in Scandinavia, Switzerland and the Netherlands in particular have steadily increased their exposure to equities to take ...

  • Features

    Lisbon taking Eurex plunge

    November 2001 (Magazine)

  • Features

    Ready for European tour?

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    The announcement by the €552m VKG-CPM Belgian pension fund for doctors, dentists and pharmacists that it had established a new healthcare sector pension fund, ‘Amonis’, with potential membership of 250,000 employees across the country, was not only one of the most significant in the Belgian pension market in recent times, ...

  • Features

    Eyes fixed on reserve fund

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    This year has seen a slowdown in the creation of new pension funds in Portugal. The awaited reform of the social security system, the real key to the future development of the industry, has not yet materialised, and although the debate is still alive, so far no major steps have ...

  • Features

    Pan-European focus

    November 2001 (Magazine)

  • Features

    Gescartera probe fuels political row

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    What began as an investigation into the activities of Spanish brokerage company Gescartera has developed into a political crisis for the ruling Partido Popular (PP), and a worldwide search for embezzled funds and ‘black money’ accounts Casualties already include the head off the stock market’s regulatory body and a senior ...

  • Features

    Getting to grips with fund of funds managers

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    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 ...

  • Features

    'Simple fundamental philoshophy'

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    One of the largest but most unknown firms in the investment world is BlackRock, admits its founder and chief executive Larry Fink. “This is not something we planned for, but we just do not believe in ‘self-marketing’. Our whole mandate is to achieve acceptance through performance and client service.” The ...

  • Features

    Norway's giant insurer planned

    November 2001 (Magazine)

  • Features

    Global property index launched

    November 2001 (Magazine)

  • Features

    Stop indexing: go passive

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    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 ...

  • Features

    Ready to go pro-cyclical

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    Global equity market return has now been negative for six quarters in a row, except for the first quarter of 2001. This means that the downturn is almost as long as the 1973–74 oil crisis. The effects of the attacks are very difficult to quantify but growth forecasts are reduced ...

  • Features

    Governance: for the people but not by the people?

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    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 ...

  • Features

    Time to re-examine hedge strategies

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    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 ...

  • Features

    Swiss hopeful on tax

    November 2001 (Magazine)

  • Features

    Living with increased volatility

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    Over the past 10 years, capital markets have been subject to a series of shocks. In the foreign exchange markets, the prime examples have been the ejection of sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and the collapse of a number of the Asian currencies in 1997. In the bond ...

  • Features

    Making introductions

    November 2001 (Magazine)

    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 ...