epn: European Pensions & Investment News articles from February 2008

epn: European Pensions & Investment News archives from February 2008

News: ABP to take contribution holiday if solvency rises.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson The Netherlands ABP, the 220bn Dutch pension fund giant, is considering a contributions holiday if its solvency levels continue to grow. Ronald Wuijster, head of strategy and research allocation, told epn...

News: UK trustees not hot on private equity buyout.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Martin Steward United Kingdom Trustees from the UK's largest pension schemes would be "concerned" at the prospect of their sponsoring company being bought by a private equity firm, but are happy to invest with these firms to...

News: Fund manager targets less liquid EMs.
February 11, 2008... Nicholas Applegate, the San Diego-based fund manager, is considering launching an emerging markets equity process targeting smaller, less liquid emerging markets. The company currently offers an emerging markets systematic fund, a $1.2bn...

News: In brief.
February 11, 2008... Standard Life Investments (SLI) has ditched its investments in airline stocks as part of an ethical investment drive. SLI has decided to exclude airline shares from its ethical funds following feedback from a survey, where 30 per cent of the...

News: In brief.
February 11, 2008... The Investor Steering Committee, established by the Alternative Investment Manage-ment Association last July, is to publish an educational guide for hedge fund investors in the Q2 of this year. Alexander Ineichen of UBS - itself one of the...

News: Goldman to spread fiduciary management offering globally.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Goldman Sachs Asset Management will look to expand its fiduciary management offering to Scandinavia, the Middle East and the US in what could be a hot year for the asset management concept. Ruud Hendriks,...

News: Aegon fixed income to expand into Europe.
February 11, 2008... Aegon has said it will make more additions to its fixed income team this year, which it hopes to expand in Europe. Henk Eggens, chief investment officer at Aegon, said: "We are clearly focused on fixed income. We think fixed income is the...

News: IOPS warns against too much use of alternative investments.
February 11, 2008... Alternative investments can improve returns and reduce risk, but increasing their use could add more risks to pension funds, the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors (IOPS) has warned. In a report on best practices by IOPS, the...

People News: ATP bolsters NY-based US investment team.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Denmark ATP Private Equity Partners (ATP PEP), the 5.9bn private equity arm of the Danish supplementary pension fund ATP, has boosted its presence in New York, where it opened an office last year. It now has...

People News: East Capital plans office in UK capital.
February 11, 2008... East Capital, the specialist eastern European asset manager, is considering opening a London office within the next two years, according to the head of its client-side and distribution branch. Karine Hirn, one of the team that founded the...

People News: People on the Move.
February 11, 2008... Thomas Muller, Swiss Life's group chief financial officer, has taken on the additional role as group chief risk officer following the departure of Hans- Jurgen Wolter, who has become chief risk officer at Generali Investments. Hansjorg Furrer...

News Analysis: Dutch insurers decry PGGM admin branding as 'dishonest'.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Dutch insurers and smaller pension schemes are crying foul at PGGM's decision to split its admin department from the pension fund. The Dutch Association of Insurers (Verbond van Verzekeraars) is currently in...

Comment: Leader - Daggers out as ASB paper gets industry's back up.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Chris Newlands - Editor Reaction to the UK Accounting Standards Board's (ASB) proposals for pension accounting has been unenthusiastic to say the least. Indeed, the publication of its discussion paper, The Financial Reporting of...

Comment: Industry voice - The arc of the covenant.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Derek McLean - Head of ALM and insurance assets at F&C Given the current market volatility, most trustees will be more worried about the value of their equity holdings than about liability-driven investment (LDI) strategies. The...

Comment: Mephisto - A treasonous crime but no heads rolling.
February 11, 2008... Where will Jerome Kerviel get his next job? Imagine going through his CV: 'Trader at Societe Generale; cost the firm 4.9bn in illegal trades.' In Mephisto's opinion, Kerviel's next racket should be in consultancy. Anyone capable of...

Fund Profile: Greece - TAP-OTE broadens horizons by focusing on local EMs.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Reeta Cevik Greece's 550m telecommunications pension fund, TAP-OTE, is in the middle of diversifying its investment portfolio so it can better cope with the current low-yield environment. The fund plans to invest 7 per cent of its...

Country Profile: Germany.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Germany's pension system and market are still grappling with solvency issues and problematic demographics. A recent report shows that the average funding levels for DAX companies in 2007 were close to 70 per cent....

Features: Eastern Europe - Investor indifference key to 'emerging' status.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Thomas Escritt At some point, a market has to stop emerging, and some of the markets of emerging Europe are reaching this stage. What does it mean, for example, to describe Slovenia, which joined the eurozone a year ago, as an...

Eastern Europe: Emerging past the common pitfalls.
February 11, 2008... Investing outside the core markets of central and eastern Europe is a game for specialists. Karine Hirn, chief executive of the distribution arm of the Stockholm-based specialist East Capital, says: "We think it's a very exciting market, but...

The Specialist: pan-European pensions - Fighting for a pan-Euro jurisdiction.
February 11, 2008... Much has been written about pan-European pensions - and much is expected from them. So why do they remain as rare as hens' teeth? And will they ever live up to expectations? The first of these two questions is easy to answer - easy but not...

The Interview: Professor Guus Boender - chairman and non-executive director, Ortec.
February 11, 2008... Byline: Anke Claassen What will be the most important issue for the financial market and, more specifically, the Dutch pension industry? Risk management, without a doubt. That will be the biggest challenge for the future. How to best...

News: Sampension commits to commodities.
February 11, 2008... Denmark Sampension, the DKr93.5bn (12.5bn) Danish pension company, is to add more alternatives to its portfolio. The fund is not only planning its first move into commodities and infrastructure but also intends to increase its property,...

News: Engineers fight volatility with alternatives boost.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Iceland Iceland's 300m Engineers' Pension Fund will increase its exposure to alternatives in an effort to fight recent market volatility. The fund's chief executive officer Stefan Halldorsson told epn that...

News: Aegon Netherlands to axe equity offering.
February 25, 2008... The Netherlands Aegon Netherlands is to stop directly selling equities within the next year. Henk Eggens, chief investment officer at Aegon, told epn that, at the moment, the firm was more focused on fixed income, and would begin...

News: PKA goes into emerging markets with infrastructure.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Denmark PKA, the 16bn Danish pension fund company, is looking to add to its infrastructure portfolio and is planning to include infrastructure funds specifically focused on emerging markets. The fund,...

News: AVH drops bonds for equities and property.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson The Netherlands The 450m Dutch Agrarian Pension Fund (AVH) has cut its exposure to bonds in favour of equities and indicated it will expand its real estate holdings. For the moment, all of its real estate...

News in brief.
February 25, 2008... Unigestion has launched a US equity fund managed under the minimum variance model. The philosophy is based on the principle that investors, over the long term, are rewarded for avoided risk more than for the risk taken. The fund will be...

News in brief.
February 25, 2008... KPA Pension, the Swedish pension company for public sector employees, posted negative returns of -3 per cent in 2007, which so far are the worst returns in the industry. The firm admitted the returns were not satisfactory and put it down to...

News in brief.
February 25, 2008... Jean-Louis Nakamura, chief executive officer of the 8.4bn French public service supplementary pension scheme ERAFP, is to leave the fund next month. Mr Nakamura will join Lombard Odier Dairer Hentsch Gestion as institutional head. Mr Nakamura...

News: Finnish equity market blossoms as Danish stocks hamper market.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Chris Newlands Investors in Danish equities will be content, buyers of Austrian stocks will be happier and investors in Finland will be ecstatic. According to the latest figures from ABN Amro's Global Investment Returns Yearbook...

News: Finnish funds to invest much closer to home.
February 25, 2008... Finland Finnish pension and insurance funds are reversing a 10-year non-domestic investment trend by increasing their allocations to the Finnish market. The surprise findings are part of a Finnish Pension Association (Tela) report. ...

News: Stapi fund ditches equity in global volatility manoeuvre.
February 25, 2008... Iceland Iceland's 1bn Stapi pension fund has increased its exposure to fixed income and absolute return strategies, at the expense of its equity portfolio. The cuts in equity holdings hit both its domestic and international stock...

People News: Ilmarinen CIO takes on 'rare' job as Aktia CEO.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Finland Jussi Laitinen, chief investment officer at the 23bn Finnish pension insurance company Ilmarinen, is to leave the firm in April to become chief executive officer at Aktia Savings Bank. "I've been...

People News: Pioneer France gets new head.
February 25, 2008... Pioneer Investments has finally recruited a new head of France, following the departure of Marc Olivier last summer. Fabien Madar was poached from ING Investment Management as general manager for France and will also be responsible for...

People News: People on the move.
February 25, 2008... Mercer has appointed Jelle Beenen as head of investment strategy consulting in the Netherlands. He joins from PGGM Investments, where he was head of alternative beta. Prior to that, he was head of commodities and quantitative strategies. Mr...

News Analysis: Unilever pension case boils down to a battle of 'wording'.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson What happens when a fund appears to have plenty of money but its members worry that their pensions will not keep pace with inflation? It gets settled in court. This is precisely what happened earlier this...

News Analysis: Our view.
February 25, 2008... Every worker has the right to a viable pension. The issue here is whether or not the current contributions will keep pace with inflation. Currently, the Netherlands has one of the lowest rates of inflation in Europe and the world, so, at...

Comment: Making off with the highly exploitable PGGM brand.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Chris Newlands - Editor So what is in a name? Quite a lot if the rumpus in the Netherlands is anything to go by. After a drawn-out process, the Dutch courts sent an early Valentine's Day gift to PGGM when it ruled on February 13...

Comment: Industry voice - Digesting the last free lunch.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Michael O'Brien - Head of distribution, EMEA, at Barclays Global Investors All investors face a common challenge: achieving the maximum return for the risk they are happy to take. These investment returns can come from a broad...

Comment: Mephisto - Nationalisation: recommended by clever people.
February 25, 2008... There's nothing like a good old-fashioned dose of nationalisation to rev up the engines of the hysterical pro-business class. Investors and businessmen worldwide were rightfully worried when Hugo Chavez nationalised his country's oil reserves,...

Fund Profile: The Netherlands - AVH - Bond-heavy AVH mulls new direction for a testing 2008.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson With a name like Stichting Bedrijfspensioenfonds voor de Agrarische en Voedselvoorzieningshandel, you would think the Dutch Agrarian Pension Fund (AVH) would be the biggest scheme in the world. Naturally, alongside...

Country Profile: Norway.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Norwegian pension and insurance companies had been second-guessing for some time how their government's new investment regulations would look before they came into force at the start of this year. Most got it...

Features: Nordic region - Danish private equity - The fight to cool off private equity fever.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Danish pension and insurance funds cannot seem to get enough of private equity assets. But not everyone agrees that this is for the best. While demand for the sector has been strong, the asset class has come under...

Nordic region: Icelandic interest rates - Reykjavik markets flounder on thin ice.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Iceland is in trouble. Its currency is in freefall and the credit markets have dried up. Worse still, the Central Bank of Iceland refuses to change its monetary policy while interest rates sit at a startling 13.75...

The Specialist: EM 130/30 strategies - The long and short of the 130/30 model.
February 25, 2008... Byline: David Blitz With some of the world's largest quant hedge funds experiencing large declines in August 2007, many people have wondered just how correlated quant models really are. With most being equal-weighting portfolio holdings,...

Economics: US economic impact - Waking up from the American dream.
February 25, 2008... Byline: Bob Doll - Vice-chairman and global chief, investment officer, equities, BlackRock The start of the year was a difficult one. Equity markets around the world experienced record levels of volatility and this article addresses some...