epn: European Pensions & Investment News articles from January 2004

epn: European Pensions & Investment News archives from January 2004

News: Dutch body challenges on corporate governance.
January 19, 2004... The new chairman of the Dutch pension funds' corporate governance association (SCGOP) has challenged fund managers and insurers to match pension funds' shareholder voting record. Roderick Munsters, head of investments at the E50bn Dutch...

News: German hedge fund law changes.
January 19, 2004... A change in German law means that hedge fund of fund products can now be distributed directly to German investors. The law also smooths the path for institutional investors to invest in mutual funds. Both changes are expected to provide...

News: Fund managers cautious on equity markets.
January 19, 2004... A nine month rally in the stock markets has not convinced managers to increase their exposure to equities, according the results of epn's latest quarterly investment survey (see page 10). Only 19% of respondents revealed that they would be...

News: More Dutch funds to tap market.
January 19, 2004... two more Dutch pension funds have approached ING Investment Management about using the bond markets to resolve their unfunded pension liability problems, despite criticism from the Dutch corporate pension fund association (OPF) that the...

News: Commerzbank in pension row.
January 19, 2004... Commerzbank, Germany's fourth-biggest commercial bank, has provoked a row with its employees by announcing plans to withdraw its employer-funded corporate pension as of 2005. The public service trade union, ver.di, is to review the case, but...

News: News in brief - Pickering awarded CBE.
January 19, 2004... Alan Pickering, chairman of the European Federation for Retirement Provision and a partner at Watson Wyatt, has been honoured for his services to occupational pension schemes. He was awarded a CBE, an honour awarded by Queen Elizabeth II on...

News: News in brief - LCF rebrands Rothschild.
January 19, 2004... La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild has announced a change of name for its subsidiaries, as part of a process of simplification and improved visibility of the different units. On the 1 December 2003, LCF Rothschild Asset Management...

News: News in brief - Aberdeen wins $520m brief.
January 19, 2004... Axa Investment Managers has announced the Danske Invest, one of Denmark's oldest and largest fund groups, has awarded Aberdeen Asset Managers two mandates worth $310m - $210m in Global Emerging Market equities and $100m in Asia ex Japan...

News: News in brief - Axa in first property ETF.
January 19, 2004... Axa Investment Managers has announced the signing of an exclusive licence to launch exchange traded funds on the European real estate indices of EPRA (European Public Real Estate Association). Axa will become the first issuer in Europe to...

News: News in brief - Fidelity adds to fixed income.
January 19, 2004... Fidelity Investments has hired two for its London-based fixed income portfolio management team. Beatrice Rodriguez has joined as a money market fund manager reporting to Martin Hall, head of fixed income, and Joe Andrews has joined the...

News: News in brief - Ainsworth heads Mutual fund.
January 19, 2004... Old Mutual has named John Ainsworth chief executive of its hedge fund of funds unit Bright Capital, consolidating the CEO position at Bright and sister company Old Mutual Asset Managers (UK). Ainsworth was already CEO of Old Mutual Asset...

News: Russell/Mellon expands.
January 19, 2004... Russell/Mellon CAPS has signed up 13 new managers from across Europe to its Asset Manager Information (AMI) database. This brings the total to 114 asset managers, with more than GBP1 trillion in assets under management. Russell/Mellon CAPS...

News: Portugal's funds return 8.1%.
January 19, 2004... Portuguese pension funds notched up median returns of 8.1% in 2003 despite a disappointing set of results for the month of December. The rally in the European stock markets saw the returns from Portuguese and European equities reach 2.5%...

News: Italian pension authority wants to keep independence.
January 19, 2004... A commissioner at Italy's pension authority, Covip, has expressed a preference for the body to remain as independent as possible, now that discussions on a new over-arching financial services supervisor are making progress. Urgent...

News: Fees drop in bear markets.
January 19, 2004... Hedge fund performance fees amassed in the bull markets of 1996 through to 1999 were significantly higher than the fees in the bear years from 2000 to 2002, according to research by London-based independent fund research company, Fitzrovia...

News: S&P index returns 11.1%.
January 19, 2004... Hedge funds tracked by Standard & Poor's finished the year strongly with a return of 1.41% in December, bringing the year's return to 11.1%, as measured by the S&P Hedge Fund Index. The best performing S&P category in December was the...

News: Man Group's latest product raises $490m in client money.
January 19, 2004... Global alternative investment products provider, Man Group, has seen its most recent launch, the Man Multi-Strategy Series 6, raise $625m (E490m) in client money. Series 6 is a global offering in two currency classes, euros and US dollars....

News: Ranger Group targets European institutions.
January 19, 2004... Dallas-based Ranger Capital Group has opened an office in Geneva, Switzerland, to service European clients. It will be staffed with professionals from the firm's Texas headquarters and new hires from Europe. Kent Smith, a director at...

News: Broadstone to launch two funds on Irish SE.
January 19, 2004... Dublin-based Broadstone Fund Management (BFM) is to launch two hedge funds in February to be listed on the Irish Stock Exchange. The Broadstone Avenir fund will be global macro, investing in a portfolio of fixed interest, equities, currencies...

Comment: Leader - Don't leave Russia out in the cold.
January 19, 2004... The repercussions of the Yukos affair are still playing out in European institutional investors' minds. Defining the universe for an eastern European emerging markets mandate has always been an art rather than a science, but although...

Comment: World View - New year chances.
January 19, 2004... The beginning of the new year calls either for new resolutions or at least the review and re-evaluation of the year just gone. Resolutions are mostly not kept and a long time ago this writer embraced the policy not to make any more at new year....

Comment: Industry Voice - Crystal ball gazing.
January 19, 2004... What does 2004 have in store for us? Most of us have stopped worrying about deflation. The war is behind us, though we live with the ever-present threat of terrorism. Accounting scandals have not gone away, although this time it is the turn of...

Comment: Mephisto.
January 19, 2004... The pensions world just got smaller in Poland. Via the power of SMS, customers of the Polish arm of Credit Suisse Life & Pensions can now retrieve important information and the balance of their life or pension insurance seven days a week, 365...

EPN Quarterly Investment Survey: Will 2004 be the year of the cautious optimist?
January 19, 2004... Investor optimism is at record highs, according to the results of epn's latest quarterly investment survey. In our most recent study, which took in 26 asset and pension fund managers with E6.3 trillion-worth of assets under management, almost...

EPN Quarterly Investment Survey: Dollar set on its downward spiral for next six months.
January 19, 2004... While asset and pension fund managers agree that world growth prospects remain positive for 2004, more than 80% of respondents also agreed that the dollar would continue to slide against the euro over the next three to six months. Since...

Focus: Consultants - Staying in tune.
January 19, 2004... Last year was a difficult 12 months for the UK consultant community. Investment managers accused them of hindering their relationships with institutional clients, Paul Myners blamed them for being too short-termist and the head of Deutsche...

Focus: Consultants - SRI: not top priority for consultants.
January 19, 2004... It is a new year for consultants but criticism continues to mount about their capabilities in the socially responsible investment arena. Despite encouraging figures from Eurosif, the European Commission backed socially responsible...

Focus: Consultants - German investment consulting expands.
January 19, 2004... Supplementary pension products may not be taking off among German workers as well as they might, but consultants are looking to investment liberalisation to spark their business this year. They cite the regulatory changes that now make it much...

Global Custody: Global and local providers battle it out.
January 19, 2004... In November 2002, Deutsche Bank sold its Global Securities Service (GSS) or global custody business to State Street, then in October last year announced the purchase of Dresdner Bank's German domestic custody unit. All participants described...

Global Custody: Security lending still limited in the German market.
January 19, 2004... Global custodians can generate valuable income from client portfolios by security lending. In the US and UK this is an important means of reducing the overall cost of custody services. "But matters have not reached this stage in Germany yet,"...

Hedge Fund Profile: Zacks - A tale of two strategies.
January 19, 2004... Chicago-based Zacks Investment Management runs a unique hedge fund that offers investors the opportunity to switch between two strategies: aggressive growth (Zacks QP) and market neutral (Zacks MN). "We know of no other hedge fund quite like...

Fund Profile: Norwegian Petroleum Fund - High returns from low risks.
January 19, 2004... Norway's Government Petroleum Fund dates from the Act of the same name in 1990, and owes its existence to a strategic decision by the Norwegian Storting. Intended as a reserve for future expenditure - a buffer for fiscal and monetary...

Pensions Snapshot: Germany.
January 19, 2004... AS the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, Frankfurt's asset managers were toasting the birth of a new asset class in Germany: hedge funds. As a result of the government's investment modernisation law, which took effect on 1 January,...