epn: European Pensions & Investment News articles from May 2004

epn: European Pensions & Investment News archives from May 2004

News: German schemes finally warm to hedge funds.
May 10, 2004... Germany's largest industry pension fund is to award five hedge fund mandates. Berlin-based BVV Versicherungs-verein des Bank-gewerbes, the banking sector's Pensionskasse, is about to award up to five multi-strategy-hedge fund mandates to...

News: Conference calls for rating regulations.
May 10, 2004... Rating agencies may have to be subject to regulatory supervision in light of their substantial influence on capital markets, according to Professor Wolfgang Gerke of the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, who has advised the German government on...

News: Accession firms cross emerging markets divide.
May 10, 2004... With eight formerly communist countries of central and eastern Europe now in the EU, asset managers and institutional investors are beginning to incorporate some of these markets into their broader European portfolios, market players say. ...

News: Corporate funds get OPF advice.
May 10, 2004... The Dutch company pension funds' association, the OPF, has unveiled recommendations on the governance of the nation's 370 corporate pension funds. The OPF said the 24 new recommendations were its "answer to a shift in the social landscape,...

News: BIAM plans E5bn European growth.
May 10, 2004... Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) has signalled its intention to grow its continental European institutional business fivefold to E5bn by 2009. Although BIAM has generated respectable volumes of institutional business in the UK,...

News: News in Brief - S&P provides index solutions.
May 10, 2004... Standard & Poor's, the US index provider, has set up a Global Custom Index Solutions group to meet growing investor demand for tailor-made benchmarks. "From active managers seeking to build a specific universe of stocks for managing their...

News: News in Brief - Master KAGs push Universal.
May 10, 2004... Universal Investment, the German asset management house, says that its success in the Master KAG - or institutional fund platform - arena was pivotal to its 32% increase in assets under management over the past six months. From the...

News: News in Brief - Dutch mutual funds in breach.
May 10, 2004... The Dutch mutual funds regulator NVB has acknowledged that certain mutual funds in the Netherlands violated regulatory rules, but stressed that the violations did not constitute serious infractions and that they would be corrected. The...

News: Less is more in Asia.
May 10, 2004... After a three-week marketing push, Aberdeen Asset Management is to launch its Asian Smaller Companies Fund. The news follows the April launch of Allianz Dresdner Asset Management's Desheng Enhanced Small Cap Fund, which attracted more than...

News: UK pooled funds start the year with a 1.1% median return.
May 10, 2004... Pooled funds in the UK yielded a median return of 1.1% in the first quarter of this year, following the 18.1% gains of 2003 and the 30% losses of the three previous years. According to Russell Mellon CAPS, UK equities - the single biggest...

News: Improvements to IAS 19.
May 10, 2004... The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has proposed changes to its IAS 19 accounting rule to allow for the immediate recognition of actuarial gains and losses, as in the UK. The draft, titled Employee Benefits: Actuarial Gains and...

News: Aon study shows high worker/pensioner ratio for Luxembourg.
May 10, 2004... Luxembourg has the largest number of workers supporting each state pensioner, according to research from Aon Consulting. The EU-wide study found that Luxembourg has as many as 4.44 workers for every one of its pensioners, compared to...

People on the move: Threadneedle hiring.
May 10, 2004... Jane Shoemake, former client portfolio manager at JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management, has joined Threadneedle in the new role of investment specialist, reporting to Mark Stanley, the firm's head of institutional business.

People on the move: Tobin appointed at BGI.
May 10, 2004... Barclays Global Investors has appointed Rory Tobin into the new role of director of transitions, Europe. Tobin, who was previously head of sales for cash equities and co-head of pan-European equity products at JPMorgan, will be responsible for...

People on the move: Biggs to Northern Trust.
May 10, 2004... Northern Trust has appointed Penelope Biggs as head of its institutional custody, fund administration and asset servicing businesses for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Biggs, who will report to Stephen Potter, group head of the firm's...

People on the move: Burman joins BBH.
May 10, 2004... Keith Burman, former associate director with Jones Lang LaSalle and LaSalle Investment Management in London and Luxembourg, has joined Brown Brothers Harriman. Burman, who will be based in Luxembourg, will lead the expansion of the...

News: Lufthansa funds E4bn in pension liabilities.
May 24, 2004... Lufthansa, the German national airline, is to fund E4.3bn in pension liabilities, and is to put the entire fund up for tender. It is currently looking for managers for Asian equities, euro corporate bonds, US bonds and emerging market bonds....

News: Holdings in UK equity drop 4%.
May 24, 2004... Equity holdings in the UK have dipped by 4% to 64%, according to a Mercer study of 360 pension schemes with assets totalling E165bn. But exposure to alternative investments is set to increase. "Trustees and pension fund sponsors are still...

News: oe400m for PPF will not go far, say analysts.
May 24, 2004... The British government's new Pension Protection Fund (PPF) will be of limited use without large injections of cash beyond the GBP400m already proposed, analysts have said. The PPF envisages GBP400m of state funds invested over 20 years....

News: Sponsors look to European plans.
May 24, 2004... Pan-European pensions are likely to be implemented on a piecemeal basis as companies experiment with bilateral mergers to enhance governance and save on administration costs. Britain and Ireland are likely to be the testing ground for the...

News: BBH scoops Icelandic mandate.
May 24, 2004... Iceland's second biggest pension scheme, the E1.8bn Lifeyrissjodur Verzlunarmanna Pension Fund of Commerce, has appointed Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) to provide global custody and fund accounting services. Thorgeir Eyjolfsson, managing...

News: News in brief - Moller appointed at Robeco.
May 24, 2004... The Dutch fund manager Robeco has appointed George Mller as its new chief executive, effective from 1 July. Mller, 56, is taking over from Gery Daeninck, who has decided to step down after a falling out with Robeco's supervisory board. ...

News: News in brief - RCP rates Raiffeisen 'very good'.
May 24, 2004... For the second consecutive year, the Austrian asset manager Raiffeisen KAG has obtained a rating of 'very good' from RCP & Partners, a German rating agency that rates asset managers. Following its first assessment of Raiffeisen in 2003, RCP...

News: News in brief - DeAM sets up mutual funds.
May 24, 2004... Frankfurt-based Deutsche Asset Management will launch four mutual funds for institutional investors in Europe, with a roll-out expected in July. The Luxembourg-domiciled funds will be targeted primarily at investors who use international...

News: News in brief - Pimco wins E500m PME brief.
May 24, 2004... The E14bn Dutch industry fund for the mechanical and electrical engineering industries, PME, has awarded Pimco a E500m US short term fixed income mandate to provide cash backing for the fund's commodity exposure. "The fund's benchmark does...

News: Vanguard eyes Stockholm.
May 24, 2004... Vanguard Investments Europe, the Belgium-based US manager that won E1.64bn- worth of funds from the French FRR state pensions reserve fund's recent E10bn tender, is to make a push into the Scandinavian institutional pensions market. "We...

News: Pioneer assigned double-A rating by Fitch rating agency.
May 24, 2004... Pioneer Global Asset Management, the Milan-based investment house with more than E124bn of global assets under management, has been assigned a double-A asset manager rating from Fitch. "The double-A rating primarily reflects operational...

News: Global macro increasing.
May 24, 2004... The results of Tara Capital's hedge fund barometer, which are based on the views of 25 European hedge fund managers with some E79bn of assets under management, show that US long/short investment strategies have become less popular among...

News: State Street to offer hedge fund services to German clients.
May 24, 2004... State Street Bank in Munich intends to offer custodian services to hedge funds in Germany on a selective basis, Stefan Gmur, managing director, told epn. Germany opened its borders to hedge funds for the first time at the start of the...

News: ABN outsources E75bn to State Street.
May 24, 2004... ABN Amro Asset Management has become one of a long line of investment houses to outsource its E75bn fund administration business to State Street. The deal, which follows previous moves by Investec Asset Management, AXA Investment Managers...

People on the move: Fidelity takes Tiemann.
May 24, 2004... Having poached Dr. Kurt Mssle from Deutsche Asset Management to expand its institutional business in Germany, Fidelity Investments is also strengthening its German institutional team. It has appointed Dirk Tiemann, who built up the US firm's...

People on the move: Fisch AM appoints Vogt.
May 24, 2004... The Zurich-based specialist convertible bond manager Fisch Asset Management has hired Maria Vogt as director of client relationships. Vogt previously worked in a sales position at Goldman Sachs International in London and prior to that managed...

People on the move: Investec hires Sellers.
May 24, 2004... Investec Asset Management has appointed Marketta Sellers, formerly of AXA Rosenberg Investment Management, as head of its pension fund client service team. She will be responsible for the firm's relationships with existing and prospective...

People on the move: Hartmann leaves MEAG.
May 24, 2004... Dr. Sven Hartmann, head of institutional clients at MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlage-gesellschaft in Munich, is leaving the firm on 31 May. Dr. Robert Helm, managing director of the firm, said he will take on Hartmann's responsibilities.

People on the move: Scott head at Newton.
May 24, 2004... Mark Scott has been appointed as head of institutional business at Newton Investment Management. Scott, who was formerly at Deutsche Asset Management where he was head of European institutional sales and marketing, will report to the firm's...

People on the move: Miyazaki joins Gartmore.
May 24, 2004... Gartmore has appointed Jun Miyazaki as chief executive of its Japanese operations. Miyazaki, who joins from G-One Communication in Tokyo where he was president and chief executive officer, replaces Colin Hodges, who is returning to Gartmore's...

News: Italy set to overhaul first and second pillar.
May 24, 2004... Italy's government has won preliminary approval for sweeping plans to revamp the country's first- and second-pillar pension systems. Silvio Berlusconi's governing coalition passed a vote of confidence on the pension proposals, which...

News: Swiss reject plans to increase retirement age.
May 24, 2004... Voters in Switzerland dealt a blow to the government's pension reform plans when they rejected a proposed increase in the retirement age for women in a referendum on 16 May. Despite insistence by second-pillar retirement schemes that the...

News Analysis: BaFin to focus on qualitative supervision.
May 24, 2004... The German financial services regulator, BaFin, is to concentrate on the qualitative elements of its supervisory process for insurance companies - including Germany's Pensionskassen pension schemes with assets of E72bn. This will not affect...

Comment: Leader - German investors make their own way.
May 24, 2004... In this issue epn presents the first comprehensive survey of German institutional fund management administrators, or master-KAGs. And, as we note in this issue in the case of Lufthansa, German institutions are increasingly keen on using the...

Comment: World View - Dollar offers best position.
May 24, 2004... Since the US-dollar began to depreciate against the euro, the common understanding has been that there is a well developed correlation between the price of gold and the US dollar. While the dollar fell, the price of gold rose. There were...

Comment: Industry Voice - Emerging into a good return.
May 24, 2004... The relentless pursuit of excess returns in pension fund portfolios has seen allocations to emerging market debt increase considerably over the past 18 months. A significant number of institutional pension plans have been introducing the asset...

Comment: Mephisto.
May 24, 2004... Schemes are taking more than just their assets and future liabilities into account when undergoing an ALM study. Consul-tants and software providers are developing products to meet such needs. The consultancy Ortec in Rotterdam has devised...

Focus: Third party administration - Preparing to offload.
May 24, 2004... In November last year, State Street sent out a chilling message to the asset management community: outsource or die. Citing evidence from a KPMG asset manager survey, which found that 40% of its 185 respondents were to finish 2003 in deficit,...

Focus: Third party administration - Lane Clark & Peacock pushes into benefits admin.
May 24, 2004... Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP) has thrown its hat into the arena for UK benefits administration services, and is looking forward to continental expansion. The London-based actuary, which has a 5% share of the British pensions market in terms of...

Focus: Third party administration - How F&C stabilised costs by outsourcing ahead of competitors.
May 24, 2004... Last month F&C completed the transfer of 94 of its back office staff to Mellon after the company agreed to outsource its E60bn custody and investment administration arm in November last year. "The bear market showed us a situation in which...

Focus: Third party administration - German master-KAGs - Technology is challenge for administrators.
May 24, 2004... The days may be long past since regulators visited German institutional fund administrators (KAGs) with a stopwatch to see that there was a sufficient time-lapse between the arrival of orders from sub-advisors and their implementation. This was...

EU Accession Investment Report (part 2 of 5) - Estonia - Estonia will be among first new euro members.
May 24, 2004... By many accounts, Estonia started to integrate with western Europe several years ago. Almost since its emancipation from the Soviet Union, the country has enjoyed close trading relations with neighbouring Finland. It pegged its currency...

EU Accession Investment Report (part 2 of 5) - Hungary - Hungary looks for liquidity and aims at EMU by 2010.
May 24, 2004... Almost since the day Hungary threw off communist rule in 1989, pundits joked that the country only ever seemed to have one official policy: to join the EU. Nearly 15 years later, after a succession of governments of all political stripes...

Pensions Snapshot: Russia.
May 24, 2004... The government's much touted semi-privatisation of state pensions - meant to give workers a choice of providers for a Swedish-style notionally funded portion of their state pension - has been largely a debacle. The selection process for asset...