All IPE articles in November 2005 (Magazine) – Page 5
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Features
The case for keeping it simple
Pension funds are doing well in solving disputes with their members, and they are even improving. This is the view of Dutch Pensions Ombudsman Piet Keizer. “There is a clear trend towards better information and dealing with members’ complaints. A growing number of funds have their own complaints’ schemes, which ...
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Features
Three things for a great business
Historically the New York-based asset manager BlackRock International has never set out to be a big hitter. It has preferred to build up its score steadily. Ralph Schlosstein, the co-founder and president of BlackRock agrees that, for the fixed income business for which his firm is best known, this an ...
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Features
The bull in the china shop
It is a new dawn over Eindhoven for the investment team for the Philips Pension Fund. This autumn it joined the thundering herd of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), one of the largest asset managers in the world with $478bn (e396bn)under management. The deal, completed in September, is a boon ...
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Features
Pensionsfonds bright future
Aleading German pensions adviser, Richard Herrmann of consulting firm Heubeck, sees a strong future for German Pensionsfonds. The funds - Germany’s answer to the equity-oriented Anglo-Saxon pension fund - should double their assets every two years now that the government has boosted their competitiveness, he says. In implementing the EU ...
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Features
Breaking the stranglehold
One of the myths about Germany is that it is becoming less attractive to foreigners wanting to do business. Spreaders of the myth – typically neo-liberal-minded industrialists, economists and politicians – say that unless Germany lowers its labour costs, cuts its taxes and streamlines its bureaucracy, it will attract fewer ...
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Special Report
Inclusion boosts engagement
In September independent Stockholm-based SRI analysis house GES Investment Services launched a web-based extension to its active engagement service that will enable its institutional investor clients to become more involved in the engagement process. “There is a need for an engagement/discussion forum for clients,” says GES marketing director Henrik Af ...
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Features
Long bond dangers
Surely I can not be the only person concerned at the recent headline in the UK’s Financial Times, ‘UK finds success in a 50-year linker’. The UK government marked a milestone in bond market history in September by raising £1.25bn (e1.8bn) with the sale of the world’s first 50-year inflation-linked ...
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Features
New kid on the block
Build a better mousetrap, the saying goes, and the world will beat a path to your door. Build a better market index, and perhaps investors will do the same. Until recently, there has been a consensus in the investment community that the traditional broad market indices like the S&P 500 ...
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Special Report
Too bitter a pill to swallow
Major European pension institutions such as ABP, USS and Hermes are among a group of institutional investors that have launched a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp over a poison pill arrangement. Investors participating include Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme and Hermes Investment Management. The group seeks ...
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Features
Taking the next big step
Developing from a pension fund into a fully-fledged commercial tiger does not happen overnight. Mn Services in Rijswijk knows all about it. Until 2001 Mn Services was an integral part of the Pension Fund for Metalworking and Mechanical Engineering. Four years ago Mn Services ‘broke loose’ from its parent and ...
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Features
Beyond 'custody'
Something funny happened to the custody business on the way to the 21st century: ‘custodians’ effectively became ‘financial services providers’. The term ‘custodian’ is still widely used, of course, but custody provision itself is no longer a real differentiator in the market. All of the established providers do custody well, ...
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Features
Solidarity between generations
Communication between pension funds to their members is the best way of keeping the collective solidarity between the generations in an ageing population. “Communication and information of the pension funds to their members is paramount,” stated social affairs’ minister Aart Jan de Geus speaking at the ABP Rendez-vous. “It ...
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Features
Long/short strategies best
In September 2005, the major hedge fund strategies not only achieved positive returns but also significantly exceeded their long-term performance. Not surprisingly, the long/short equity strategy obtained the best performance in September in the midst of bullish stock markets (eg, +0.69% for the S&P 500), historically low levels of stock ...
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Features
Benchmarks bring business risk
Asset managers need to update their fixed income benchmarks each day to be able to judge how their portfolios are behaving in the market. They can lose serious money if the benchmark changes its exposure and their benchmark holdings are not up to date. Benchmark data comes from files supplied ...
