epn: European Pensions & Investment News articles from October 2004

epn: European Pensions & Investment News archives from October 2004

News; EC seeks active stance on corporate governance.
October 11, 2004... The European Commission is attempting to get national pension associations to be more active over corporate governance. It believes that well-organised corporate lobbyists are drowning the voices of investors in their consultation submissions...

News: Fitzpatrick to step down.
October 11, 2004... Nick Fitzpatrick, Hewitt's current head of global investment consulting, is to step down in the spring of next year and will be replaced by Nicola Ralston, former head of investment management at Schroders. Ralston, 48, will start at the...

News: Skandia targets working time accounts.
October 11, 2004... The German arm of Swedish life assurer Skandia has teamed up with ebase, a fund administration company, to offer fund products to German employees who accumulate savings via so-called working time accounts. It will aim the product at German...

News: Heineken hedge move.
October 11, 2004... The E1.5bn Heineken pension fund is considering increasing its strategic allocation to hedge funds from 5% to 10% over the coming months to diversify its portfolio and decrease dependence on equities. The fund, which also employs a tactical...

News: PREI targets Swiss, Austrians.
October 11, 2004... Principal Real Estate Investors, one of the largest institutional property managers in the US, is examining whether to enter the Swiss and Austrian institutional markets. "We are exploring opportunities to create or expand relationships...

News: News in brief.
October 11, 2004... Dutch pension crisis deepens The Dutch government is refusing to compromise on its plans to reform early retirement. The social affairs minister, Aart Jan de Geus, and the finance minister, Gerit Zalm, both recently said there was no room...

News: F&C forms 40-strong pan-European desk.
October 11, 2004... F&C Asset Management, formed from the merger between F&C Management and Isis Asset Management, has created a 40-strong pan-European equities desk that will be headed by Richard Wilson, who joined from Gartmore in July. The desk will be...

News: BGI rolls out first Chinese ETFs and lists three others.
October 11, 2004... Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has launched a new Japanese Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and will list three other new ETFs - including what it claims is the first that provides exposure to the Chinese economy - on the London Stock Exchange (LSE)...

News: People on the move.
October 11, 2004... AP3 loses Eriksson Magnus Eriksson, head of equities management at AP3 is to leave the fund to become an investment manager at MGA Holdings. Magnus, who has been with AP3 since 1999, is the fifth senior member of staff to leave the E16.8bn...

News: Alecta slams govt code.
October 11, 2004... Alecta, Sweden's largest pension manager with more than SKr300bn of assets under management, has criticised the Swedish government's proposed 2005 code on corporate governance. It says it will be costly for smaller companies to incorporate...

News: Dutch funds face merger.
October 11, 2004... Smaller Dutch pension funds are likely to merge, according to a senior Dutch pensions regulator. Flip Klopper, director of the occupational pensions regulator, the PVK and Dutch National Bank told our sister publication npn he believed the FTK...

News: EU Watch.
October 11, 2004... The European Commission was set to adopt two action plan initiatives on corporate governance on 6 October as epn went to press. They cover disclosure on the remuneration of directors and the composition of non-executive boards. The first...

Interview: Lionel Martellini - Where long-only meets absolute.
October 11, 2004... "Times are changing," says Prof. Lionel Martellini, loosely citing Bob Dylan. The scientific director at Edhec Business school's Risk and Asset Management Research Centre envisages taking the role of guide as providers and their institutional...

Comment: Leader - Hedge funds: the pensions fund era?
October 11, 2004... Many hedge funds wish that pension funds would invest more in their products. They point to evidence such as that contained in a Greenwich Associates study, which shows that allocations of less than 15-20% will not generate significant...

Comment: World View - Turn back the clock.
October 11, 2004... Capital markets and politics are still suffering from the fallout from the technology bubble. Although some world equity markets have been able to deliver solid returns over the past 12-18 months, the repercussions from over-investment in...

Comment: Industry Voice - Bonjour Paresse.
October 11, 2004... As if from the wrong side of the Berlin wall, the British gaze enviously at the French way of life: a 35-hour week, great food, those wonderful TGVs and a pension system that works. Half of British pensioners qualify for means- tested benefits,...

Comment: Mephisto.
October 11, 2004... Mephisto never ceases to marvel at the verbal circumlocutions of his close friends, the world's politicians. The discussion about the Dutch pre-pension early retirement system has provided him with no little amusement. In a debate on 15...

Special Focus: Netherlands - Shoring up the pension system.
October 11, 2004... Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? If that good thing is pensions reserves - as mandated in the new Financieel Toetingskader (FTK) - Gerard van Dalen believes that there is. "The FTK demands a level of security of 97.5%,"...

Special Focus: Netherlands - Conflict: Dutch government takes the pensions issue head on.
October 11, 2004... The Dutch government is doing everything it can to dissuade workers from taking first pillar pensions before 65. Not only are long-term sickness benefits and early retirement pensions no longer tax deductible, secretary of state for finance,...

Special Focus: Netherlands - Consultants to gain from FTK.
October 11, 2004... The FTK has come in for a raft of criticism for its complexity, which some say will increase the administrative burden on funds to such a degree that many smaller and mid-sized schemes will be forced to seek more help from consultants and...

Special Focus: Netherlands - Performance-related fees gain ground.
October 11, 2004... The use of performance-related fees by pension funds is on the increase. "We are not seeing a landslide," says Ewout van Schaick, a controller at pension fund PGGM, "but the increase in their use is steady and mounting." This applies not...

Pension Fund Profile: Heineken - Dutch brewer goes overweight on hedge funds.
October 11, 2004... The E1.5bn Heineken pension fund is one of the oldest schemes in the Netherlands. Created some 60 years after the company was founded - when Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought himself a brewery in Amsterdam in 1864 - the scheme has been investing...

Pensions Snapshot: Finland.
October 11, 2004... Next year will see the start of significant reforms in the Finnish pensions market. Like the majority of EU states Finnish population is expected to fall between now and 2050, while its old-age dependency ratio is set to double. ...

News: ABP warns Dutch funds on communication issues.
October 25, 2004... ABP's chairman has warned Dutch pension funds to take care over the way in which they communicate their policy on indexation. Poor wording over implied promises could expose funds to future litigation and every letter in which indexation is...

News: Pickering to step down from EFRP this month.
October 25, 2004... Alan Pickering, chairman of the European Federation for Retirement Provision, is to step down from his role this month after three years. It is understood that Jaap Maassen, managing director of ABP Pensions in the Netherlands is to replace...

News: EFRP issues notes on pensions directive.
October 25, 2004... In a move to help the EU's 25 member states better interpret the European pensions directive, the European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) has published a 69-page legal commentary, which provides article-by-article analysis of the...

News: FRR looks to property.
October 25, 2004... On top of the two calls for tenders that the French pensions reserve fund plans to make for private equity and socially responsible investment mandates, the E16bn fund has revealed to epn that it also plans to include real estate within its...

News: IAPF highlights pension issues.
October 25, 2004... Trustees and employers need to achieve a greater balance in their relationship if they are to tackle some of the major pension issues facing them today, the Irish Association of Pension funds warned last week. Gerry Ryan, chairman of the...

News: News in brief.
October 25, 2004... ACPEM LOBBIES SPANISH GOVT - The Association of Pension Fund Trustee Boards (ACPEM) is lobbying the Spanish government to ease the tax regime for Spanish pensions. Jordi Morcillo Casas, ACPEM president, told epn: "The pension schemes...

News: F&C AM gets new fixed income team.
October 25, 2004... A new-look GBP65bn (E94bn) fixed income operation is the latest product of the merger earlier this month between F&C and Isis. The resulting company, F&C Asset Management, now boasts a large bond team, comprised of 47 staff picked from both...

News: MLP gains advice mandate from DHV.
October 25, 2004... The German Association of General Practitioners (DHV) has appointed the financial services provider MLP as financial adviser for occupational pensions. It will advise around 30,000 doctors' practices. It hopes to generate interest in workplace...

News: People on the move.
October 25, 2004... Maisonneuve move Schroders is to appoint Virginie Maisonneuve as its new head of Europe, Australasia and Far East (EAFE) equities. Maisonneuve, who was educated in Paris and Beijing, formerly worked as co-CIO at Clay Finlay. She will...

News: Soderberg actively targets Swedish funds.
October 25, 2004... A group of 12 defectors including Gustaf Rentzhog and Eric Rosengren from the Swedish financial services firm Carnegie are striking out on their own, targeting pension funds throughout the Nordic region with their own investment consulting...

News: Shell scheme plans restructure.
October 25, 2004... Shell's Irish pension scheme may re-structure it fund management arrangements and could use external managers for the first time following a dip in its surplus. A source at Shell said stricter strategies for the fund managers have been put...

News: PVK figures see glimmer of hope for Dutch pension funds.
October 25, 2004... There is a flicker of light at the end of the investment tunnel for Dutch pension funds, but the there is no sign of an end to the modest return trend. However, in its annual overview published on earlier this month, the Dutch pension fund...

News: Hedge funds bounce back.
October 25, 2004... Hedge fund returns bounced back in September, fuelled by rising oil prices and the recent spate of hurricanes. The Standard & Poor's Hedge Fund Index, which attempts to broadly represent the entire hedge fund sector worldwide, was up 0.47...

News: Fund to include euro and Nordic currencies.
October 25, 2004... The Baltimore-based investment manager T Rowe Price is to expand its global aggregate fixed income fund to include euro and Nordic currency-denominated share classes. "An investment hedged against currency risk makes sense for European...

News: BGI offers tax-efficient US equity investing.
October 25, 2004... A tax efficient solution for pooled investing in US equities has been created for UK pension schemes by Barclays Global Investors. Until now British investors have benefited from tax relief on US stock investments only if they were held...

News Analysis: Turner Report receives mixed response from industry observers.
October 25, 2004... Barely squeezing through our letterboxes, UK Pensions Commission's first report thudded into the nation's collective consciousness last week. Ever to be known as the Turner Report after Commission chairman Adair Turner, it tells us all...

Comment: Leader - Compulsion: the best way forward.
October 25, 2004... If UK all-in marginal taxation rates were over 50% for an average earner as they are in Germany, then pension compulsion might well be dismissed, citizens would see it as an extra tax. If hourly labour costs were as high as in Austria,...

Comment: Industry Voice - More work for actuaries.
October 25, 2004... EU politics is the art of the possible. The Dutch government, which holds the presidency of the EU Council until the end of the year, was mastering this concept during the recent Council of 4 October. At this meeting, the ministers of the...

Comment: Mephisto - My old man's a Dutchman...
October 25, 2004... You'd be astonished at what Dutch pension funds do to relax nowadays, given all the stress piled on them in the form of FTK, IAS-19 and stubborn equity markets. Anyone present at the annual ABP rendez-vous in the beautiful Kurhaus,...

Special Focus: Transition Management - When size matters.
October 25, 2004... Speak to any transition manager and it is not long before they start referring to their market as a hot topic. But it seems they have a point. Debates about pre-hedging, the T-standard, increasing competition from new and existing firms as well...

Special Focus: Transition Management - T-standard gets going to a mixed reception from managers.
October 25, 2004... The T-standard, the attempt by Russell to establish an industry standard that pension funds can use to measure the performance of transitions - such as implementation shortfalls - is up and running after a long period of consultation. But,...

Special Focus: Transition Management - Major personnel reshuffles at transition specialists.
October 25, 2004... It is not only assets being transferred in the transition management arena. Northern Trust Global Investments' recent appointment of Simon Hutchinson as head of its London office marks just one in a number of senior personnel changes to have...

Special Focus: Transition Management - Spreading the cash around.
October 25, 2004... Picking up new pension fund business is important to any transition manager, but when that business comes from the mighty E16bn French Pensions Reserve Fund (FRR) it is especially satisfying. But capturing a mandate of that size does not...

Real State Investments: Cutting risks with property.
October 25, 2004... The old investment adage is that investors can increase their returns and reduce their risks by adopting a more international outlook. This must be true of property as it is of equities and bonds. It is therefore concerning to observe the...

Pension Fund Profile: AMF Pension - Tranquility in a volatile market.
October 25, 2004... Topping the Swedish industry pensions performance league tables over one, five, 10 and 15 years, AMF feels justified in sticking with its investment policy. So it was a relaxed CEO and head of asset management that epn met on a crisp...

Pensions Snapshot: Switzerland.
October 25, 2004... The past few years have been a testing time for Swiss pension funds and employers as poorly performing equity markets have left many schemes underfunded and with minimal reserves. This problem is set to be compounded by a proposal of 1...