epn: European Pensions & Investment News articles from February 2007

epn: European Pensions & Investment News archives from February 2007

News: PensionDanmark raises exposure to alternatives.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Caroline Liinanki The 8.3bn Danish pension fund PensionDanmark is to increase its exposure to alternatives to 4 per cent of its total assets this year and to 10 per cent by 2012. The fund already invested in two infrastructure...

News: Artemis latest boutique in Europe's institutional market.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Thomas Escritt Artemis has become the latest UK boutique asset manager to show interest in the European institutional marketplace with the launch of three euro- denominated Sicavs. The company is launching Luxembourg-domiciled...

News: F&C fights back with institutional products.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Thomas Escritt F&C sees its future in pricier, more sophisticated products for the institutional marketplace, according to a roadmap unveiled after losing some major mandates. Chief financial officer David Logan said the...

News in Brief: S&P buys Goldman Sachs GSCI commodity index.
February 12, 2007... Standard & Poor's has moved to expand its presence in the commodity index business with the acquisition of the Goldman Sachs GSCI commodity index. The transaction will also see S&P become the owner of two other Goldman Sachs equity index...

News in Brief: Industry players demand performance benchmarking.
February 12, 2007... Three UK industry associations with interests in the pensions market have united to advocate mandatory, independent verification of investment performance. The Association of British Insurers, the Investment Management Association and the...

News: Unicredit takes steps to tidy up plethora of subsidiaries.
February 12, 2007... Unicredit is consolidating the tangle of asset management subsidiaries it acquired along with HypoVereinsbank last year. The company is transferring HVB's remaining asset management subsidiary, Nordinvest, to Pioneer Global Asset Management,...

News: NBIM explains asset class expansion plan.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Chris Newlands Norges Bank Investment Management has confirmed its expansion into new assets classes, with real estate likely to be the most important (see epn 207). The growth in NBIM's assets under management combined with...

News: FTSE 100 pension fund deficits hit record low.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Christine Senior Pension fund deficits for FTSE 100 companies fell in January to their lowest level since records began. They stood at GBP31.8bn (48.3bn), compared with GBP34.3bn in April 2006, the previous lowest figure since...

News: Synesis appoints former Watson Wyatt man as senior actuary.
February 12, 2007... Synesis has boosted the strength of its management team with the appointment of Daniel Harrison as senior pension actuary. Mr Harrison has 17 years' experience with Watson Wyatt where he advised companies and trustees on pension and benefit...

News: People on the Move - Griffiths is new Credit Suisse asset management head.
February 12, 2007... Paul Griffiths has been appointed as managing director and head of fixed income for asset management at Credit Suisse. Mr Griffiths, who was previously global head of fixed income and CEO of the UK business at AXA Investment Managers, will be...

News: People on the Move - BGI makes Wong European head of corporate governance.
February 12, 2007... Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has appointed Simon Wong as the European head of corporate governance. Mr Wong joins BGI from McKinsey & Company, where he was working as an adviser on corporate governance. The vice chairman of BGI Europe,...

News: People on the Move - Two new hires for Henderson Global's German team.
February 12, 2007... Henderson Global Investors has appointed two real estate specialists to head up its Frankfurt office. Timothy Horrocks and Michael Englisch will be in charge of the UK asset manager's 30-strong team in Germany while continuing to serve on...

News: People on the Move - T. Rowe Price appoints fixed income specialist Huber.
February 12, 2007... T. Rowe Price has appointed Steven Huber as a senior portfolio specialist in the fixed income division. Mr Huber is a former chief investment officer at the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System with more than $34bn in assets. At T....

News: People on the Move - German fund manager CAM makes senior appointments.
February 12, 2007... German independent manager of private equity funds-of-funds CAM Private Equity has appointed two new partners to its management team. Egbert Freiherr von Cramm has been a director in the firm since 2005 and Marco Yanar joins from Ampega Asset...

News: Punter Southall warning over solvency II extension.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Christine Senior Any possible extension of the solvency II requirements to pension schemes (see epn 202) would have dire effects in the UK, which along with Ireland, would be most adversely affected by any change, warns Punter...

News: Denmark compelled to equalise tax exemption for foreign-based funds.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Thomas Escritt Denmark must grant equivalent tax exemptions to both domestic and foreign- based pension funds, the EU's highest court has ruled. Until now, Denmark has granted tax deductions and exemptions for contracts entered...

News: Foreign influences put pressure on concentrated asset management in Italy.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Thomas Escritt Italy's concentrated asset management market is due a shake-up as a result of growing pressure from foreign competitors, a report by international ratings agency Fitch Ratings has found. Italy has three...

News Analysis: Court rules that UK government failed to protect pension funds.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Kalpana Fitzpatrick The UK government was met with yet another blow when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled against it for failing to provide adequate compensation to workers who lost their pensions when their employers went...

Comment: Fresh approaches to funding liabilities.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Liam Kennedy, editor-in-chief The UK retailer Marks & Spencer went public last month on its decision to fund its pension fund through an innovative partnership involving real estate belonging to the sponsor firm with a market value...

Comment: World View - An inflationary flashback to the 1970s.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Klaudius Sobczyk It appears that deflationary clouds have vanished from the horizon and the old foe inflation is back. The number of articles and news stories on inflation is one of the highest on record, according to Societe...

Comment: Industry Voice - Dodge agent versus principal conflict.
February 12, 2007... Independent advice is being challenged. As investment has become more complex, so the potential for conflicts of interest has increased. Institutional investors increasingly find that their advisers are offering investment products and...

Comment: Warsaw's tied up with red tape.
February 12, 2007... Last February, Bank of New York announced amid much fanfare that it would be opening an asset management subsidiary in Warsaw. So where is it Nosing around on Google turns up no evidence of the much- heralded BNY National Trust investment...

Focus: Emerging Markets - Fresh ideas on new markets.
February 12, 2007... The robustness of the global economy has been driving equity markets, and emerging markets in particular have benefitted. Their outperformance since 1998 has attracted investors, but many still question the sustainability of the bullrun,...

Focus: Emerging Markets - Sharp-eyed investors know where the European action is.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Thomas Escritt If the Russian investment story continues to be about diversifying away from energy and commodities into a burgeoning consumer sector, for real excitement, emerging Europe managers are turning to Turkey. "Turkey...

Transition Management: Industry charter enters the final phase.
February 12, 2007... It's never over till the fat lady sings. Although a 'final' version of the t-charter has been agreed, it will require further scrutiny by the legal and compliance departments of industry practitioners, as well as some form of approval from the...

Fund Profile: British Energy - Powerful funds sense time for change ahead.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Pirkko Juntunen The two pension funds of British Energy are preparing for their next triennial asset liability modelling (ALM) study, scheduled for the end of March, with possible changes to the investment strategy on the horizon....

Pensions Snapshot: France.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Chris Newlands The French state decided to do some forward thinking. After crunching some numbers and discovering that the funding requirement for its pay-as-you-go pension system was set to jump up from 0.8 per cent of GDP in 2020...

News: Actuary double up on MEP fund branded waste of cash.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Christine Senior The European Parliament's decision to appoint a new actuary to the ailing 200m pension fund for MEPs, which has deficits of around 30m, has sparked anger among the fund's management committee who claim the move is...

News: Pension fund interest fuels inflation-linked bond rise.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Christine Senior Over the course of 2006 the UK inflation-linked bond market more than doubled from GBP9bn (e13.4bn) in 2005 to around GBP20bn, driven by increasing interest from UK pension funds, according to Watson Wyatt...

News: Norwegian govt fund poaches duo from Norges Bank.
February 26, 2007... The Norwegian ministry of finance has added two new senior members of staff to its asset management department, which is responsible for the supervision of the Government Pension Fund. Tom Fearnley and Harald Johansen have been appointed as...

News: People on the Move - Four appointments drive Northern Trust LDI expansion.
February 26, 2007... Northern Trust has expanded its liability-driven investment (LDI) operations with four new additions. Clint Cary, a former actuary at Capital Strategies Group, has been appointed as LDI investment strategist to develop custom,...

News: People on the Move - Howchin switches from GES to analyst post at Norges Bank.
February 26, 2007... John Howchin, former vice president of GES Investment Services, has left the firm for a position as senior analyst at Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM). GES has in turn appointed Fredric Nystrom, former client manager, as marketing...

News: People on the Move - Duo join Cordea Savills as assistant portfolio managers.
February 26, 2007... Cordea Savills, the property fund manager, has appointed two assistant portfolio managers to its London office. Michael Green has joined from Australand Property Group and is working with Richard Lake, director of fund management. John Kerhoe...

News: People on the Move - Aberdeen poaches Brouwer in push towards Netherlands.
February 26, 2007... Aberdeen Asset Managers has poached Rik Brouwer from Watson Wyatt in a bid to expand its Dutch business. Mr Brouwer joins as a senior business development manager from Watson Wyatt's office in The Netherlands, where he was a senior investment...

News: People on the Move - Scandinavian assault as Axa REIM opens Stockholm office.
February 26, 2007... Axa Real Estate Investment Managers (Axa REIM) has opened a Stockholm office in a bid to grow its business in Scandinavia. Jerome Arnaud, previously senior asset manager for Axa REIM France, has been appointed as the head of asset...

News: Assets surge as French institutions embrace SRI.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Christine Senior Interest from French investors in socially responsible investing (SRI) has surged over the last year. Investments in SRI funds in France have increased by 26 per cent over the past 12 months, according to new...

News: Experts predict pension costs convergence as DC schemes rise and DB funds become less expensive.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Christine Senior The costs of defined benefit (DB) schemes are gradually falling while the cost of defined contribution (DC) funds are rising, according to a new study from Towers Perrin. The survey of 170 UK companies showed...

News Analysis: China bucks negative equity trend.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Chris Newlands Chinese equities notched up real returns of 116 per cent during the course of last year and outperformed Spanish, Russian and Norwegian stocks - the best performing European markets - by some 80 percentage points,...

Indexing Focus: Indices: still measuring up?
February 26, 2007... When Henry Varnum Poor published his History of the Railroads and Canals of the United States in 1860, his aim was to give investors an overview of the performance of the burgeoning US railways industry. Almost 150 years later, the index...

News: Performance decline fails to dampen commodity appetite.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Kalpana Fitzpatrick Pension funds are continuing to look at commodity investments despite recent declines in returns, according to Barclays Capital. New players and increasing competition in the commodities market has led to...

News: Neptune breaks into new space with Nordic push.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Thomas Escritt Neptune, the specialist UK equities manager, has picked up three multi- manager mandates in the Nordic region and is in talks to announce further mandate wins in the region. The company, which has long had a UK...

News: Aegon's next venture Croatia and Ukraine.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Thomas Escritt Aegon's next targets in the emerging European marketplaces are likely to be Ukraine and Croatia, according to the company's director for central and eastern Europe. But Gabor Kepecs, who heads up the Dutch...

News: News in Brief - Threadneedle and CB Richard Ellis combo targets Euro property.
February 26, 2007... Threadneedle and CB Richard Ellis Financial Services have teamed up to launch a European property fund of funds, the Threadneedle European Property Fund. The fund is expected to be an open-ended Luxembourg-listed Sicav. The vehicle will be...

News: News in Brief - Ex-LPFA man Scales re-emerges on EIA investment panels.
February 26, 2007... Peter Scales, the former chief executive of the London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA), has joined the investment panel of Epic Investment Advisers (EIA). Mr Scales, who left the GBP3.5bn (5.2bn) LPFA at the end of last year after 16 years, will...

Comment: Troubled MEP scheme cannot set gold standard.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Chris Newlands, editor It is now approaching four years since the EU directive for institutions for occupational retirement provision (IORP) was passed by the council of ministers. But no true pan-European scheme yet exists, and...

Comment: World View - Agriculture could reap biofuel benefits.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Klaudius Sobczyk Renewable energies of various kinds are increasingly in fashion across the globe. There are numerous reasons to be optimistic over the future of renewable energies, but at the same time there could be many pitfalls...

Comment: Industry Voice - Seeing a sea change on ESG influence.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Alain Grisay Many pension funds across Europe have come to recognise the growing influence of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues on financial returns, and are examining how best to translate this into their...

Comment: Saving for tomorrow and scrimping today.
February 26, 2007... "I really must save more to pay for my retirement," thought Mephisto one morning as he was shaving blearily. Mephisto is of course timeless and ageless. There at the creation, he expects to be there more or less until the end. But, like all...

Weather Derivatives: The outlook is bright for weather derivatives.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Mariska van der Westen For years the weather has been a favourite conversation topic, for the simple reason that the weather conditions affect almost everyone. That certainly goes for the business world: from the energy sector to...

Fund Profile: Etera - New CIO aims to break down investment limitations.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Chris Newlands Mika Pesonen, Etera's newly appointed chief investment officer, had not intended to make any changes to the E5.6bn pension insurance firm's investment process when he was poached from the Finnish State Pension Fund...

Pensions Snapshot: Germany.
February 26, 2007... Byline: Thomas Escritt A proposed amendment to the German investment law will hobble the country's asset management industry, the investment industry's trade association has claimed. But others are not so sure. Frank Herring, a partner...