epn: European Pensions & Investment News articles from April 2008

epn: European Pensions & Investment News archives from April 2008

News: Finnish state fund to correct bad year.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Finland Valtion Elakerahasto, the 12,1bn Finnish state pension fund, will revise its strategy for alternative investments next month, following unexpectedly low returns of 1.8 per cent in 2007. "We will...

News: Lufthansa fund to take off with alternatives.
April 7, 2008... Germany Lufthansa's 3.5bn pension fund is looking to add alternative investments to its portfolio, as part of a strategic review of its assets. Walter Schmidt-Cording, director of risk management for the fund, said: "We're interested...

News: Luxembourg public fund in equities and bonds boost.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Luxembourg Luxembourg's 7.2bn general public pension scheme, which is significantly cash heavy, is looking to increase its equity and bond allocations over the course of the next three years. The fund has...

News: Icelandic fund ups bulging private equity exposure.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Iceland Sofnunarsjodur Lifeyrisrettinda, the IKr55.6bn (460m) Icelandic General Pension Fund, is planning to increase its already significant allocation to private equity and is also considering taking on...

News: Corem to begin south Europe surge.
April 7, 2008... Corem UMR, the 6.6bn French third pillar pension fund, intends to launch similar funds in southern European countries. Vincent Ribuot, investment director for the fund, said he would like this to happen as soon as possible. He said:...

News in brief.
April 7, 2008... Handelsbanken has appointed Northern Trust as its global custodian in an agreement worth $15bn (9.6bn). As part of the deal Northern Trust will act as custodian for the bank's clients in Norway, Denmark and Finland. The contract extends an...

News in brief.
April 7, 2008... IDEAM, the socially responsible investment (SRI) arm of Credit Agricole Asset Management (CAAM), has launched a water-themed equity fund. The fund - the CAAM Funds Aqua Global - will be a Ucits III-compliant sub-fund of the Luxembourg-domiciled...

News in brief.
April 7, 2008... Contributions to UK company pension schemes have fallen by half in the last 12 months, insurance company Prudential has claimed. The report - The Prudential 2008 Retirement Savings Report - revealed that those who pay into private or company...

News: Cypriot fund ponders second wave of international expansion.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson The 260m Cypriot Hotel Employees Provident Pension Fund is looking to continue to increase its international investments, but has expressed nervousness about what lies ahead. Three months ago, the fund made its...

News: UK institutional investment guidelines due for update.
April 7, 2008... United Kingdom The UK government is to update the institutional investment principles set out by Paul Myners six years ago. The principles are a set of guidelines to which UK pension funds must either comply or give reasons for...

News: Illmarinen opts for external recruitment with new CIO.
April 7, 2008... Finland Ilmarinen, the 23bn Finnish pension insurance firm, has appointed a new chief investment officer following the departure of former investment head Jussi Laitinen. Despite Mr Laitinen's hopes of an internal promotion, the board has...

People News: LCP eyes Germany and Ireland as it goes Dutch.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Lane Clark & Peacock, which recently opened its first office in the Netherlands, has already signed up several Dutch pension fund clients following its expansion. The firm is also preparing for further European...

People News: Watson Wyatt vet to head up investment.
April 7, 2008... Watson Wyatt has appointed Carl Hess as global head of investment consulting to succeed Roger Urwin, who is stepping down to focus on global development and investment research. "I am looking forward to developing our thinking and...

People News: People on the move.
April 7, 2008... BlackRock has appointed David Lomas as managing director of its European financial institutions team. The team serves the portfolio and risk management needs of insurance companies and other financial institutions around the world. Mr Lomas...

People News: People on the move.
April 7, 2008... Putnam Investments has appointed Carsten Schack as director of sales and marketing for Germany and Austria. He will be based in Frankfurt and work alongside Peter Schepp, Putnam's senior regional marketing director. Mr Schack joins from Fortis...

People News: People on the move.
April 7, 2008... Charlie Massey, executive director for strategic development, is leaving the Pensions Regulator after a three-year secondment from the Department for Work and Pensions. Mr Massey is returning to the department to take on the role of capability...

People News: People on the move.
April 7, 2008... Schroder Property has added Christoffer Sundberg as head of fund management Nordic to its Swedish property team. Mr Sundberg joins from Aberdeen Property Investors, where he was head of fund management, Finland, and responsible for its Finnish...

People News: People on the move.
April 7, 2008... Scottish Widows Investment Partnership has added Guy Skinner to its global bonds and economics team. Mr Skinner will take on the position of investment director for government bonds and will manage a selection of global and sterling government...

People News: People on the move.
April 7, 2008... Fidelity International has appointed Ilario Di Bon as head of global equities. He joins from UBS Global Asset Management, where he was lead portfolio manager on a number of global equity portfolios. Based in London, Mr Di Bon will lead the...

Comment: Leader - Will exasperated savers discover an empty chest?
April 7, 2008... Byline: Chris Newlands - Editor The credit crunch continues to crunch. High profile casualties include the 2,000 staff expected to lose their jobs at Northern Rock as well as the many thousands of Bear Stearns' shareholders who saw...

Comment: Industry voice - A Mehta-phorical forecast.(Industry overview)
April 7, 2008... Byline: Nitin Mehta - Managing director, EMEA, CFA Institute When John Pierpont Morgan was asked what he thought the market would do, he pondered for a while and replied confidently: "I think it will fluctuate". The story may be apocryphal...

Comment: Mephisto - Sky-high rates sending Iceland towards recession.
April 7, 2008... Imagine buying a house where you have to pay 15 per cent on your mortgage. This is the case in Iceland, where, for example, a 100,000 loan spread out over 25 years will equate to monthly payments of more than 1,280 and an overall repayment of...

Fund Profile: UMR Corem - Vive la pensions revolution Francaise.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson France's UMR Corem pension fund is at the forefront of the country's pension revolution. Unlike most archaic French pay-as-you-go schemes, Corem is aggressive - it is defined contribution (DC) and its investments...

Country Profile: Iceland.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson The industry was and still is clamouring for an interest rate cut. As of March 24 2008, Iceland's rates stood at 13.75 per cent, far and away the highest in Europe excluding Turkey. The country's central bank met...

Features: Regional pensions - A tale of two regions: French vs German- speaking Switzerland.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Switzerland has always been a distinctly regional country and, regarding its pension funds, the divisions are just as stark. Funds in the French region have tended to be far more aggressive and equity heavy, while...

Features: DB to DC - Swiss going all out for DC transfer.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Several large Swiss pension funds are switching from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) in a relatively hardline manner. Instead of going the usual route of closing the DB scheme to new members or...

The Specialist: Equity ownership - Citizen investors: the rise of active ownership.
April 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lee and David Pitt-Watson If you have a pension, or if you run a pension fund, you can potentially have enormous influence on the conduct of companies. Most chief executive officers will repeat, as a mantra, that the aim of...

News: Kosovar fund hungry to expand and diversify.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Kosovo The 278m Kosovo Pension Savings Trust (KPST) is looking to expand and diversify its allocation via index and mutual funds. Vershim Hatipi, deputy director of the fund, explained that its current...

News: SRI pioneer embarks on riskier strategy.
April 21, 2008... Switzerland Nest, the Swiss 380m socially responsible investment (SRI) pension fund, will add more risk to its portfolio by making its first investment in hedge funds. The fund, which for the last 25 years has invested in terms of SRI...

News: Pensplan sizes up Euro partners for strategic alliances.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Italy Pensplan, the manager of the 800m Trentino-South Tyrol regional pension funds, expects to set up structures for co-investments with other European funds over the coming months. It is also eager to start...

News: Polish second pillar predicts increased foreign exposure.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Poland Poland's 10bn second pillar Commercial Union pension fund is convinced the government will adjust restrictions on foreign investment within a year. The defined contribution fund, which is the...

News in brief.
April 21, 2008... Eight schemes agreed to transfer assets worth GBP520m (644m) to Paternoster, the pensions buy-out firm, during the first quarter of this year. This takes the company's tally to 37, representing 22,800 pensioners, 10,000 deferred members and...

News in brief.
April 21, 2008... BNP Paribas Investment Partners has bought London-based multi-manager IMS Group to help boost its UK business. IMS Group will join BNP Paribas' multi- management FundQuest brand, meaning its assets under management will swell to GBP37bn. The...

News in brief.
April 21, 2008... Fidelity MultiManager has appointed Ayesha Akbar as a portfolio manager, Asian and emerging markets equities. She will join in June, reporting to Geraldine Stewart, head of investment - multimanager. Ms Akbar, who joins from Barclays Wealth,...

News: Norwegian government fund buys into property investment.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Norway The NKr2.1trn (254bn) Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global is likely to make its first investment in property by the end of this year, following the decision to include the asset class in its...

News: Hymans wins adviser role at parliament fund.
April 21, 2008... United Kingdom The GBP400m (495m) UK Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund has appointed Hymans Robertson as its investment adviser. The fund, which is a contracted-out final salary scheme, is open to all members of parliament and...

News: Pension Corporation puts an end to governance dispute with regulator.
April 21, 2008... United Kingdom The UK's Pension Corporation has come to an agreement with the Pensions Regulator over the governance of the Telent pension scheme. The regulator said the trustees and Telent had agreed a number of measures designed to...

People News: Tapiola brings in top Finnish figure as CEO.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Finland Tapiola, the 12.7bn Finnish pension company, has appointed Satu Huber to become its new chief executive officer. Ms Huber is currently managing director of the Federation of Finnish Financial Services...

People News: Threadneedle eyes top spot as it opens Milan office.
April 21, 2008... Threadneedle is making its first push into Italy with the opening of an office in Milan. The firm, which wants to become one of the country's top 10 foreign asset managers within the next year, has appointed UBS's Alessandro Aspesi as its...

Comment: Industry voice - The rainbow after the storm.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Nigel Cresswell - Executive director at Lehman Brothers Pensions Advisory Service There is no doubt that we are in the midst of a financial storm. Credit spreads have widened considerably and equity markets have shown considerable...

Comment: Mephisto - Far from a bed of Roses at the top of the food chain.
April 21, 2008... For those who missed it, UK retailer Marks & Spencer's chief executive officer Sir Stuart Rose was recently named executive chairman, much to the chagrin of the firm's pension fund as well as many other schemes across the UK. The old dears...

Fund Profile: Kosovo - KPST - The young, free and independent fund.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson From their viewpoint, it was a matter of justice and inevitability. Kosovo's February 17 declaration of independence was greeted with euphoria among the vast majority of the local population, recognition from most...

Country Profile: Switzerland.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Switzerland's pension system and industry appear to be in good shape. Solvency levels are high, assets are growing steadily and many funds are enjoying easing legislation. Some have even managed to change their...

Features: Nordic region - Credit crunch investing - Softening the blow by default.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Christine Senior Like investors everywhere, pension funds in the Nordic region have suffered from recent financial market turmoil - mainly through their exposure to plummeting equity markets. But they can take some consolation...

Features: Finland - Valtion Elakerahasto - Finnish state fund steadying the ship.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Following its disappointing returns of only 1.8 per cent in 2007, Valtion Elakerahasto (VER), the 12,1bn Finnish State Pension Fund, is continuing to boost its alternatives but still does not see any need for a...

The Specialist: European mortgage market - Navigating out of risky waters with Euro securities.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Michael Burns Since summer 2007, the financial markets have been in turmoil and prices of many assets have been tumbling. Mainly leveraged investors started to head for the exit and this put more pressure on - even high quality -...

Economics: The rumour effect - Chinese whispers the biggest financial bug Bear.
April 21, 2008... Byline: Andreas Utermann - Global chief executive officer at RCM Whatever comes next in the seemingly endless subprime-sparked credit crisis, the demise of Bear Stearns, the fifth largest US investment bank, is likely to prove to have been...