epn: European Pensions & Investment News articles from July 2008

epn: European Pensions & Investment News archives from July 2008

News: NPRF mulls hedge funds to bolster weak returns.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Ireland The 20bn Irish National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) has revealed that it is looking into an investment in hedge funds, an asset class previously shunned by the fund. John Corrigan, director of the...

News: Danish lawyers' fund grows forestry.
July 14, 2008... Denmark Jop, the DKr35bn (4.7bn) Danish pension fund for lawyers and economists, has made its first investment in forestry to boost its overall alternatives allocation. The fund intends to increase its private equity and infrastructure...

News: PPM expels Sampo for long line of breaches.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Sweden Premiepensionsmyndigheten (PPM), the Swedish premium pension authority, has thrown out all funds run by Finnish manager Sampo from its fund platform. Administrative failings, which the PPM regards...

News: FRR says green asset classes on the table.
July 14, 2008... France The 34.5bn Fonds de Reserve pour les Retraites (FRR) will consider adding environmentally friendly assets to its portfolio. Nicolas Sobczak, chief investment officer for the buffer fund, told epn that the next strategic review,...

News in brief.
July 14, 2008... Non-listed real estate funds of funds are growing in popularity for institutional investors, according to a study from the European Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate. Of the 30 institutional investors in the survey, 13 had...

News: Hermes EOS rallies for clarity on active ownership rules.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki Germany Hermes Equity Ownership Services (EOS) is calling for regulators in all member states to clarify the rules for active ownership and what constitutes 'acting in concert'. The call follows the firm's...

News: ING Romania fund calls for looser pension rules.
July 14, 2008... Romania The ING Romania pension fund wants the regulatory framework for Romanian pension providers to be relaxed and brought into line with the rest of Europe. "We are, among other things, lobbying for our investment restrictions to...

News: Varma remains indifferent but 'opportunistic' on ETFs.
July 14, 2008... Finland Varma, Finland's largest pension insurance company with 28.7bn in assets under management, has criticised exchange -traded funds (ETFs) for not providing anything different from existing investment options and is considering...

People News: Watson Wyatt preps Lisbon costing centre.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Watson Wyatt is set to open a new valuation centre in Lisbon, Portugal in the coming months. The new centre will oversee a large portion of calculation work for the firm's business in Europe, primarily for...

People News: Sleijpen to advance after APG and Cordares merger.
July 14, 2008... APG's director of strategy and policy Olaf Sleijpen will be promoted to director for institutional clients, once the merger between APG and Cordares is made official. While the merger is not expected until September, the move indicates...

People News: People on the move.
July 14, 2008... Northern Trust has made a move in its Dutch business, with the hiring of Maarten Roeleveld as sales manager for the country. In his new role, Mr Roeleveld will be responsible for selling the firm's asset servicing products to the Dutch...

News Analysis: Deficient European DC can learn from Australian success.(Conference notes)
July 14, 2008... Byline: Chris Newlands The asset management industry is ill equipped to deliver pre-retirement defined contribution (DC) products to the European market, according to delegates at last week's Fund Forum in Barcelona. When asked if the...

Comment: Leader - Going for broke in the diverse nations of Africa.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson - Editor After weeks of bloody intimidation and diplomatic grandstanding, 84-year-old Robert Mugabe pilfered a sixth term as president of Zimbabwe while the international community looked on seemingly helplessly....

Comment: Industry voice - Good governance, better returns.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Fiona Stewart Studies are beginning to show links between good governance and investment performance, with a 'poor/good' governance gap potentially worth as much as a 1-2 per cent return difference a year. Enhanced governance is...

Comment: Mephisto - A meeting about having a meeting.
July 14, 2008... What could be better than a luxurious stay at the G8 Hotel? Does anyone else notice our great leaders munching on lobster and caviar while they arrive at the summit in their private jets? And to add insult to injury, they lecture us on carbon...

Fund Profile: ING Romania - ING reaps rewards of Romanian reform.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki The reform of the Romanian mandatory pensions system may have been delayed for over a decade but, for the ING Romania pension fund, it was definitely worth the wait. The pension company did very well out of the...

Country Profile: Portugal.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson It is a classic case of a southern European overburdened social security system with an undeveloped second and third pillar. Unlike France and Italy, which have recently made some headway in confronting their...

Features: Investing in Africa - Diversity through adversity - Pragmatists win the day in bountiful Africa.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Martin Fagan Africa has not been getting good press lately. To many, the region is ineluctably associated with political strife, wars, tribal genocide, natural disasters and corrupt regimes. The unsettling sight of Robert Mugabe...

Features: Investing in Africa - European activity - Africa climbs emerging market rankings.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Gill Wadsworth The African stock markets boasted eye-catching returns of 56 per cent last year, far outstripping their developed world counterparts, yet the region remains largely untapped by European pension schemes. According to...

The Specialist: Risk management post-credit crisis - Providing for the black swan factor.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Erik Weisman Risk management is a topic few investors discuss when markets are rising but everyone talks about following events such as the credit crisis that began last summer. At the moment, many market participants seem to...

The Interview: NPRF - John Corrigan.
July 14, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Irish funds, and also your fund, have had a tough 2007 and a difficult first quarter in 2008. What has the reaction been? Has it caused any adjustment in strategy? No, the Irish funds generally have a bigger...

News: IAPF calls for clearer rules on Zimbabwe.
July 28, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Ireland The Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF) has called for clarity on the regulations related to Zimbabwean investments. Jerry Moriarty, director of policy at the IAPF, said that while the...

News: Luxembourg pools business from outside EU.
July 28, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Luxembourg Demand for Luxembourg's cross-border pension-pooling vehicles is now coming more from the Middle East and emerging markets than Europe. According to consultants in the Grand Duchy, demand from...

News: Irish builders' fund to jack up alternatives.
July 28, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Ireland Infrastructure and private equity could be the next major investments for Ireland's 1bn construction workers' pension fund. Pat Ferguson, chief executive officer for the fund, said that while no...

News: Dutch fund hangs tough with minor gains.
July 28, 2008... Netherlands Despite lacklustre returns and a shrinking coverage ratio, Pensioenfonds Zorg & Welzijn (formerly PGGM), will not adjust its strategy. Peter Borgdorff, managing director of the Dutch fund, told epn that he would worry if...

News in brief.
July 28, 2008... The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has called on Turkey to continue its reform of the public pension system and said this was a "priority". The comments came in a recent OECD report called 2008 Economic Survey of...

News: Pioneer hints at private pan-Euro pension scheme.
July 28, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson Pioneer Investments intends to expand its institutional business into France and Spain and has suggested that it could launch a private pan-European scheme. Francesco Sandrini, senior vice-president and head of...

News: SLI opens Sicav range to Germany in time for the Abgeltungsteuer.
July 28, 2008... Germany Standard Life Investments has made its entire Luxembourg-domiciled Sicav fund range available to German investors through Dwpbank, the fund platform for Landesbanks and Savingsbanks. The Sicav range of funds includes its...

News: FTSE 100 pension deficit to rise as UK schemes up risk.
July 28, 2008... United Kingdom Investment strategies of FTSE 100 company pension schemes are exposing sponsors to excessive risk, according to actuaries at Deloitte. According to the firm's research, these companies could lose as much as GBP80bn...

People News: State Street eyes Stockholm for debut Nordic office.
July 28, 2008... Byline: Caroline Liinanki State Street Investor Services is making a push into the Nordic region and is planning to open its first Nordic office. The firm, which provides custodian services to institutional investors, hired Allan...

People News: PFA enlists new blood to enforce equity changes.
July 28, 2008... Denmark Denmark's PFA Pension has appointed Jesper Langmack as head of equities. Mr Langmack, 35, joins from Danish asset manager Nykredit, where he has been head of equities since 2003. Prior to that, he worked as equity portfolio...

People News: People on the move.
July 28, 2008... Mercer has appointed Brian Kite as a senior consultant to its investment consulting business. He will mainly work with clients that have defined contribution (DC) schemes. Mr Kite joins from Prudential/M&G, where he worked with the use of...

Comment: Leader - Battling to get back on the straight and narrow.
July 28, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson - Editor As it turns out, we're not out of the woods just yet. The second quarter began promisingly for equities after nine dismal months. But as the news worsened, so did the health of the asset class, more or...

Comment: Industry voice - Sheep in wolf's clothing.
July 28, 2008... Byline: Craig Dawson Recent headlines give credit default swaps (CDS) the appearance of a wolf that has sneaked up on unsuspecting investors and is about to cause significant losses. Investors who are willing to take a closer look rather...

Comment: Mephisto - Opposition politics - Slovakian style.
July 28, 2008... That Robert Fico is at it again. Running for Slovakia's premiership in 2006, he scared investors by promising to repeal the many liberal economic reforms that had been made by his predecessor Mikulas Dzurinda, the man many viewed as...

Fund Profile: Turkey - Oyak - Turkish military fund boasts returns surge.
July 28, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson It could just as easily be dismissed as a pension fund as it could be declared a private equity fund. Oyak, Turkey's 5bn armed forces pension fund, has seen growth on the same level as successful private equity...

Country Profile: Ireland.
July 28, 2008... Byline: Spencer Anderson It has been a merciless year and a half. Once touted as the fastest growing economy in Europe, Ireland has more recently been battered, particularly on the equity front. Mercer estimated that Irish pensions lost...