epn: European Pensions & Investment News articles from October 2005

epn: European Pensions & Investment News archives from October 2005

News: Swedish regulator in traffic light system turnaround.
October 24, 2005... Sweden's financial supervision authority, Finansinspektionen (FI), is to simplify its new traffic light system by dropping the yellow signal from the latest preliminary version. The traffic light system will be introduced in January 2006 and...

News: Commodities drive positive returns for leading Netherlands pension funds.
October 24, 2005... PGGM outperformed ABP by 1.4 percentage points during the third quarter of this year after the E69.3bn pension fund for healthcare and social workers pulled in returns of 6 per cent and pushed its year-to-date figures up to 13.3 per cent. ...

News: Single state fund for Norway.
October 24, 2005... The Norwegian government has proposed to create a new government pension fund following the advice of a pensions working paper discussed at the Norwegian parliament last spring. Nina Bjerkedal, director general at the ministry of finance,...

News: Investors to decrease allocation to equities.
October 24, 2005... European institutional investors are much more upbeat about equity market returns with respondents expecting Japanese stocks to pull in as much as 6.7 per cent over the next six months - according to the results of epn's latest quarterly...

News: BGI loses out as State Street secures WH Smith mandate.
October 24, 2005... WH Smith's pension fund has awarded a liability-driven investment mandate to State Street Global Advisors to manage its GBP873m pension fund, terminating its existing arrangements with Barclays Global Investors, Capital International and...

News: PME and PGGM take centre stage.
October 24, 2005... Roland van den Brink of the Dutch metalworkers pension fund, PME, was recognised for his contribution to the Dutch pension world at the first Dutch pension awards earlier this month, which were devised and presented by our sister publication...

News: News in brief.
October 24, 2005... VOLKSWAGEN AWARDS MANDATE TO STATE STREET GLOBAL ADVISORS Volkswagen Group Pension Scheme in the UK has awarded a GBP70m enhanced UK equity and passive UK bonds mandate to State Street Global Advisors. The mandate, which uses a multi-asset...

News: Staff turnover of fixed income professionals soars to 70%.
October 24, 2005... Staff turnover among fixed income professionals in the UK reached 70 per cent over the last three years, according to research from multi-manager Investment Solutions. These movements were driven by UK fixed income managers expanding their...

News: ABN Amro shake-up delivers new asset management head.
October 24, 2005... ABN Amro is implementing a new group structure from January next year that will see Sarah Russell move internally to become chief executive of ABN's asset management division. ABN will create five regional client business units out of the...

News: People on the move.
October 24, 2005... CORRIS TO DEVELOP CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS AT BAM Baring Asset Management (BAM) has appointed Brian Corris as client relationship director. Mr Corris joins BAM from F&C Asset Management, where he was head of institutional pension funds. At BAM...

News: Goverance can boost returns.
October 24, 2005... New academic research has found that more than 80 per cent of UK senior investment professionals believe that corporate governance and social responsibity factors influence investment performance. However, only half actually support integrating...

News: Investors are moving back to traditional hedge fund styles, says TARA Capital survey.
October 24, 2005... Global and Japan long/short equity are the favoured strategies among hedge fund investors, according to the latest quarterly Hedge Fund Strategy Barometer from TARA Capital. The survey canvassed the views of a group of European-based...

News: FRR pioneers SRI take-up in France.
October 24, 2005... FRR, the French pension reserve fund, is leading the way towards socially responsible investment (SRI) in France, according to a recent survey carried out by Novethic-Amadeis and BNP Paribas Asset Management. The survey found that 73 per...

News: Danske Capital launches new onshore products.
October 24, 2005... Danske Capital is launching new hedge fund products in a move motivated by the new hedge fund regulations, the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority introduced in July. Rune Sanbeck, head of domestic clients and sales at Danske Capital,...

Comment: Leader - Solvency Criteria: New ways of thinking?
October 24, 2005... It is no secret that occupational pension funds with a corporate sponsor are subject to different risks to stand-alone life insurance companies, whose collapse would be catastrophic to pension savers. Readers need only to think of the collapse...

Comment: World View - Shipping beyond the distant horizon.
October 24, 2005... It is not usual to write about investments in shipping. Generally, ships and shipping are not a major focus of any investment house or investment product. However it is an investment area which brought forward some of the richest and...

Comment: Industry Voice - Recognising your unique advantages.
October 24, 2005... Sometimes you have to take a step back from the coal-face, look at what confronts you and reassess whether you are on to a fruitful seam. The moment you take a step back, you realise the most important task for pension funds designing their...

Comment: Mephisto - Whistle while you work it out.
October 24, 2005... When Lane Clark & Peacock published its Accounting For Pensions Survey in August, which found that the pension funding deficits of the UK's top 100 companies had fallen by GBP5bn to GBP37bn, Mephisto heard an audible sigh of relief slip out...

EPN Investment Outlook Survey: Shifting priorities will cut equity holdings.
October 24, 2005... European institutional investors intend to cut into their equity holdings and increase their exposure to bonds, private equity and commodities - according to epn's latest quarterly institutional investor survey, which took in 35 pension, life...

EPN Investment Outlook Survey: Investors expect oil prices to slide despite recent highs.
October 24, 2005... The survey, which was sent out to many investors prior to the Hurricane Katrina and Rita disasters in the US, also asked respondents at what level they thought the price of US oil would settle over the next six months. Immediately...

Asia Focus: Japan - Investors edge towards Japan.
October 24, 2005... It is difficult to find anyone who is not bullish about Japan right now. Even before prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were returned to power with a majority in last month's elections, the investment...

Asia Focus: Japan - Japanese property market shows potential.
October 24, 2005... While the Japanese equity market is catching the eye of many international investors, as well as a growing number of local buyers, the Japanese property market is also starting to turn a few heads. "Currently, less than 5 per cent of...

Asia Focus: China - Asian equities show promise.
October 24, 2005... There is a Chinese proverb that says: "A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion." Investors that followed it would have done well out of Asian markets this year. At its start, everyone was concerned that...

Alternative Jurisdictions: Staying ahead of the game outside the EU.
October 24, 2005... Chris Verhaegen, secretary general of the European Federation for Retirement Provision, recently told epn's roundtable on the EU's insurance directive 2004/31/EC: "One of the stranger developments is that existing cross-border arrangements are...

Fund Profile: Hansa Investment Funds - Hansa leads pension fund market in Estonia.
October 24, 2005... Hansa Investment Funds (Hansa Investeerimisfondid), owned by Sweden's ForeningSparbanken, makes up some 55 per cent of the Estonian market for second-pillar pensions, the assets of which have been estimated at E266m. In total Hansa manages...

Pensions Snapshot: Norway.
October 24, 2005... Norway's finance ministry presented formal proposals to parliament at the beginning of October, which are aimed at extending the scope of supplementary occupational pension provision. The proposals are based on a report produced by Norway's...

SRI Supplement: Foreword.
October 24, 2005... The relationship between institutional investors and SRI has come a long way. From an early fiduciary "no-no" to today's more nuanced discussions, three deep trends bear witness to the mainstreaming of the industry. The merging of two...

SRI Supplement: From 'sin stocks' to the modern ethical investor.
October 24, 2005... Ethically-minded readers should look away now for this article starts with a celebration of booze, baccy and bombs. Launched in 2002, the Vice Fund may seem like a marketing gimmick, but the returns speak for themselves. Investing in alcohol,...

SRI Supplement: Demographics is key for long-term investors.(Company Profile)
October 24, 2005... Employees are companies' greatest asset; they are central in generating sales, finding innovative products and services, conducting research and development, ensuring product quality and maintaining customer satisfaction. In traditional...

SRI Supplement: When sustainability enters the financial sphere.
October 24, 2005... For a long time, the privilege of a handful of screening agencies on behalf of a few managers involved in sustainable and responsible investment, sustainability analysis - i.e. the analysis of corporate social responsibility - is now a matter...

SRI Supplement: Applying a new strategy to the modern household.
October 24, 2005... In January 2005, SNS Asset Management implemented its new research strategy, characterised by a fundamental analysis on the basis of a multi-stakeholder approach, or full-scope evaluation. The starting point is the best-in-class approach,...