All IPE articles in November 2011 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Features
Pension anger
Even if they can’t easily articulate what single thing could be done to make them go home, the Wall Street protestors and their European counterparts have more than a little in common with the Dutch youth political activists who last month joined forces in a ‘pensions rebellion’ against the Netherlands’ ...
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Features
The long-termists
As those who watched the 2006 film ‘300’ will remember, ‘the 300’ refers to the band of Spartans who heroically fought against the Persians at the battle of Thermopylae in 480BC. A modern re-incarnation – The 300 Club – has been brought to life by Saker Nusseibeh, CIO of Hermes ...
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Country Report
The Nordic Region: Guarantees Too much of a good thing
Guaranteed pensions products in Denmark and Sweden for a long time looked too good to be true and perhaps they are. At least, they are too expensive for the providers to retain, which has led to various strategies – either closing the products for new investors or persuading people to ...
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Features
Smart Finnish moves
Brendan Maton spoke with Staffan Sevón, chief investment officer at Veritas, about his fund’s hands-on approach to investing
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Country Report
The Nordic Region: Fees under scrutiny
Rachel Fixsen assesses Danish pension funds’ transparency about costs and fees
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Features
The ethical oligarchs
Kicking off the National Ethical Investment Week in London, pollster YouGov published the results of a survey measuring the British public’s interest in green and ethical financial products.
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Asset Class Reports
Global Equities: Harvesting risk premia
Dimitris Melas notes that institutional investors focus more on the selection of active managers than on the selection and combination of risk premia, despite growing evidence that risk premia contribute more to the long-term performance
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Asset Class Reports
Global Equities: An information edge
Few still believe that equity markets are efficient. But no-one thinks they are that inefficient, either. Martin Steward speaks to four asset managers who believe they have a proprietary information edge over the run-of-the-mill research process. Two exploit the wisdom of individuals; and two the wisdom of crowds
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Country Report
The Nordic Region: ‘Luckily, we don’t have Solvency II’
Martin Steward spoke to pension insurer Varma about how it manages its solvency levels and the impact Solvency II-style rules would have
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Special Report
Currency: The world rebalances
Do not be surprised when today’s immense macroeconomic stresses find an outlet in global currency markets, writes Anthony Harrington. And if you can, ready yourself to take advantage
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Special Report
Currency: The FX of turbulence
Currency alpha management is not only well-suited to turbulent markets, argues Jay Moore. It also responds well to stress testing against extreme scenarios
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Special Report
Currency: The future (or not) of the euro
A strategically-placed relative has left Neil Record with the lowdown on how the euro crisis is perceived at the top table of European politics. Here’s what he learned
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Special Report
Currency: Riding the ‘Redback’
China’s renminbi is set to become one of the world’s major reserve currencies. Philip Poole anticipates more supply of RMB-denominated bonds to foreign investors to fuel that project O
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Special Report
Currency: The future of the renminbi
Routes other than ‘dim sum’ bonds might make more sense for exposure to China’s currency over the short term, suggests Hayden Briscoe
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Asset Class Reports
Global Equities: Maintain concentration
Perhaps surprisingly, Joseph Mariathasan finds that well-managed active risk has paid off for global equity funds over recent years
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Opinion Pieces
Long-term Matters: Musical chairs
In recent years, environmental, social and governance (ESG) teams have tried to get closer -– both intellectually and in seating arrangements – to the company’s active equity portfolio managers. And for good reason: these were the company’s stars. All this led, quite naturally, to a heavy focus on ESG alpha. ...
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Country Report
The Nordic Region: Nordic investors take a cautious line
Henrik Hoffmann-Fischer outlines key findings on asset allocation, as well as trends on global versus regional mandates, based on the sixth Nordic Investor Survey
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Features
UK pension funds judge buyouts as too costly
This summer’s market turbulence took many UK pension funds by surprise, pushing them to look even more closely at their de-risking strategy. But while pension buyout deal prices have remained fairly stable, the cost of such deals has increased significantly due to falls in bond yields.
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Asset Class Reports
Global Equities: A different animal?
Edward Mott explores the role of private equity and venture capital in post-recession equity portfolio optimisation
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Features
Currency affairs
Three-quarters of respondents to this month’s Off The Record survey used currency management, 91.5% of these doing so for currency exposure hedging and 8.5% for returns.
