All IPE articles in November 2015 (Magazine)
View all stories from this issue.
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Features
Pensions and shareholders
It is remarkable but perhaps unsurprising how little attention institutional investors pay to the governance of the pension funds of investee companies.
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Features
Pensionsfonds: Still ironing out the kinks
The industry has welcomed a new proposal that could give German Pensionsfonds more flexibility, but some are disappointed it is not part of a broader reform.
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Features
Greece’s Private Sector: Hope lies in SMEs
Is the EU a community of states or just a trade organisation structured to stimulate demand in favour of the stronger economies? That existential question can provoke much discussion, but the relationship between the EU and Greece in the years ahead may provide the real answer.
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Asset Class Reports
Iran: A giant prospect on the horizon
Iran looks likely to be reintegrated into the global community after the question of nuclear proliferation has been resolved. Joseph Mariathasan looks at what the opening of one of the world’s largest inaccessible economies could bring
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Interviews
Strategically speaking: Principal Global Investors - A glimpse into the future
At least no-one dies as a result of what the investment management industry does or does not do. Unlike technological companies considering drone pizza deliveries or driverless cars, and where real issues of safety and liability may arise, asset management executives only have a set of financial outcomes to consider.
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Special Report
Investment Opportunities: Hope for a full pipeline
Will the COP21 global climate talks in Paris next month lead to a pipeline of renewable energy infrastructure investment opportunities? Carlo Svaluto Moreolo reports
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Features
How we run our money: Nobel Foundation
Gustav Karner, CIO of the Nobel Foundation, explains how the eponymous awards are funded
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Features
The perils and promise of financial repression
In this first article in a series on a new survey, Pascal Blanqué and Amin Rajan argue that quantitative easing leaves pension plans at the wrong end of an arbitrary redistribution of wealth
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Features
From our perspective: Numerical expectations
What’s in a number? Quite a lot can rest on the choice of a single figure when it represents a pension fund’s long-term return assumptions. Much rides on these assumptions, which affect current and future contribution rates. There is a great deal to lose if the balance between current and future generations gets out of kilter.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from the US: Lower expectations
Most US state retirement systems are cutting their investment return predictions. But this is still not enough, according to critics, and a minority of public pension funds are retaining optimistic assumptions and aggressive strategies.
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Opinion Pieces
Guest Viewpoint: Mark Fawcett - National Employment Savings Trust (UK)
It is early days for the UK’s new pension regime under which DC savers no longer have to buy an annuity. However, there are already lessons to be learned from the reforms.
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Asset Class Reports
Emerging & frontier market equities – A recurring upbeat record
Despite the volatility currently affecting emerging market equities at the moment, emerging markets have suffered periods of volatility in the past followed by rapid recoveries.
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Features
Diary of an Investor: Independent spirit
My friends at BIG Asset Management are here for one of their regular client visits. At Wasserdicht we don’t do lunches and the format is the traditional Dutch one, with rolls and buttermilk.
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Country Report
Nordic Region: Denmark - Pension funds transfer season
Danish pension providers have been vying for top talent in a bid to secure the best returns in the current low-interest-rate environment.
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Features
Finland: Funds defend investment stance
Finnish pension funds Valtion Eläkerahasto (VER) and Ilmarinen have defended their levels of investment in the local economy in the face of concerns that Finnish institutions are becoming less able to invest in domestic equities.
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Special Report
DC/Hybrid Strategy - NEST
Judge’s comment: “NEST remains at the forefront of the defined contribution market in Europe with its innovative strategies and, predominantly, its risk approach.”
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Special Report
Special Report: Currency - A dangerously underrated risk
Anthony Harrington finds that investors can easily overlook the foreign exchange risk that comes with investing outside of their own currency area
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Interviews
On the Record: Do you invest in clean energy infrastructure?
We ask three pension funds - AP3, Kommunal Landspensjonskasse and Strathclyde Pension Fund - about their exposure to clean energy investments.
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Special Report
Financial Markets: Europe still courting China
European financial centres are still keen to court China despite the country’s economic slowdown and recent market meltdown. Lynn Strongin Dodds reports
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Features
UK Local Government Pension Scheme: The only certainty is change
After years of uncertainty, UK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne has signalled his desire for radical structural change among the UK’s local authority pension funds.