Sustainable Finance Forum
Investors should backoff policy: Kay
Pension funds have “no business” engaging with policy makers but instead should influence change through stewardship, which is also the main function of asset managers, according to John Kay, Supernumerary Fellow in Economics at St Johns College, Oxford University.
Amanda WhiteJune 17, 2019
Sustainable Finance Forum
The future of engagement
The Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme at the University of Oxford has established a new research theme on The Future of Engagement, that will look at how to achieve greater success in engagment. Director of the program, Ben Caldecott, explains how emerging technologies, changing client preferences, new regulatory landscapes, and evolving economic geographies create new opportunities for more effective engagement and forms of active ownership.
Sustainable Finance Forum
Engagement needs more resources
Resources in the investment value chain have to shift away from financial modelling and trading towards stewardship and engagement according to Luba Nikulina, global head of manager research at Willis Towers Watson, speaking at the 8th Sustainable Finance Forum run by Oxford University.
Sustainable Finance Forum
LPs failing engagement in private equity
Engagement and stewardship in private equity has been left out in the cold. This is strange for an asset class with high returns and where the foundation is already in place for the asset manager to act on behalf of the asset owner for strong engagement. Bob Eccles encourages more action.
Sustainable Finance Forum
Investors debate engagement priorities
Should investors collectively prioritise engagement issues, and if so what is at the top of the list? This was one of the topics delegates discussed at the 8th Sustainable Finance Forum run by the Oxford University Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment together with The Rothschild Foundation and the KR Foundation.
Asset Allocation
UniSuper looks to China
The A$70 billion Australian superannuation fund for higher education and research workers, UniSuper, is keen on China. CIO John Pearce explains why.
Elizabeth FryJune 14, 2019
Innovation series
Relationship built on knowledge transfer
A knowledge exchange between the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and its manager, Parametric, has seen the fund become comfortable understanding the instruments involved to manage a chunk of its total levered allocation in-house.
Sarah RundellJune 12, 2019
Private Equity
Do mega private equity funds deliver?
Are private equity mega funds in a category by themselves? Cambridge Associate's Andrea Auerbach argues they are, but not for the reasons that investors may think.
Andrea AuerbachJune 11, 2019
Investor Profile
HESTA maps investments against SDGs
The A$50 billion superannuation fund for health care professionals, HESTA, has embarked on a journey of aligning its assets with the SDGs. Measuring its current investments against chosen sustainable development goals revealed a need for standardised measurement tools.
Amanda WhiteJune 7, 2019
Sustainability
Urgent policy action needed on climate
Last month Ceres convened the largest group of businesses calling for climate legislation in at least a decade. Their message was loud and clear: Congress must put forward policy responses equal to the severity of the climate crisis including a national price on carbon.
Anne KellyJune 11, 2019
Sustainability
Can finance crack modern slavery?
Institutional investors are increasingly worried about investing in businesses that exploit slave workforces through their supply chains. A roundtable into modern slavery discussed how asset owners and managers can take the lead to impact the 40.3 million workers in the world suffering from some form of labour abuse.
Elizabeth FryJune 5, 2019
Sustainability
The value creation boundary
The value creation boundary, a margin between innocent bystanders and the parties involved in an economic activity, is a powerful thinking device for asset owners and managers to use in considering their investment responsibilities. So should long-term investors expand the boundary and include more of humanity in the consequences of investment decisions?
Tim HodgsonMay 24, 2019
Sustainability
New guide for implementing climate risks
More than 600 organisations have supported the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures but the implementation of its recommendations have been slow, so CDSB and SASB have drawn on their well-established reporting frameworks to produce a guide that shows companies, in a very practical way, how to implement the recommendations.
Amanda WhiteMay 17, 2019
Asset Classes
Infra performance benchmarks wanting
The EDHECinfra/G20 survey of infrastructure benchmarking practices, which included representatives of 130 asset owners accounting for $10 trillion, has found that existing performance monitoring benchmarks are self-defeating for asset owners and managers. But improvement, in the form of a more representative, better defined benchmark, may be possible thanks to recent progress.
Frederic Blanc-BrudeMay 29, 2019
Asset Classes
Infra risks misunderstood
Investors in infrastructure do know how much risk they are taking and they are not happy about it, according to the 2019 EDHECinfra/G20 survey. This is the first installment of a three part series examining the results according to asset allocation, monitoring and risk management.
Frederic Blanc-BrudeMay 22, 2019
Asset Classes
USS invests in EM linkers
The £65 billion Universities Superannuation Scheme is investing in inflation-linked emerging market bonds to profit from developing economies higher bonds yields and levels of inflation.
Sarah RundellMay 14, 2019
Asset Classes
CalPERS wants PE ideas for new entity
The CalPERS’ board has approved the first step in the creation of a new private equity model, and now the fund’s CEO, Marcie Frost, is looking for advice on how to structure such an entity.
Amanda WhiteMay 3, 2019
FIS Stanford
Rise of the unicorns: venture capital
The increase in privately held start-ups has piqued interest in venture-capital markets. The opportunities are there but investors must realise that technological innovation has changed the game.
Sarah RundellOctober 18, 2018
FIS Stanford
Protecting human capital helps everyone
Investors have plenty to gain from helping to protect human rights in supply chains and managing the human costs during technological disruption and the transition to a low-carbon economy.
Sarah RundellOctober 12, 2018
FIS Stanford
How to follow megatrends to success
The big themes that will fuel growth in coming decades are interconnected and subject to change. An expert panel gave advice on riding societal change to outperformance.
Sarah RundellOctober 12, 2018
FIS Stanford
How the active complements the passive
Investors discuss the various ways that two styles often presented as if they are enemies in fact work hand in hand across portfolios to produce returns.
Sarah RundellOctober 11, 2018
FIS Stanford
CalPERS shake-up may delay PE plans
The surprise ousting of CalPERS board president Priya Mathur heralds a leadership shake-up that could place final approval of an expanded private equity program on hold.
Sarah RundellOctober 9, 2018
Asset Allocation
AustralianSuper expands offshore
Australia's largest pension fund, the A$160 billion AustralianSuper, is set to double in assets in the next five years. As a result it is sending more assets offshore and will set up offices in New York and Asia to access direct deals.
Elizabeth FryJune 6, 2019
Asset Allocation
Illinois’s innovative first
Illinois State Treasury is planning a new $700 million allocation to student loans in the first investment of its kind for any US state treasury. The $32 billion state treasury has never been scared to innovate.
Sarah RundellMay 15, 2019
Asset Allocation
Iceland’s LSR prepares to invest abroad
Iceland’s ISK900 billion ($7.5 billion) Lífeyrissjóður Starfsmanna Ríkisins (LSR), the Pension Fund for State Employees and the Pension Fund for Nurses is poised to invest more overseas as capital controls introduced in the wake of Iceland’s 2008 banking crisis finally ease.
Sarah RundellMay 9, 2019
Asset Allocation
Informed rebalancing is untapped alpha
The case of three asset owners which have successfully added value through strategic tilting or informed rebalancing, shows how this could be applied by other asset owners to add alpha.
Arun MuralidharMay 1, 2019
Strategy
Tough times greet new CalPERS CIO
Ben Meng isn’t easing into his role. The new CIO of CalPERS faces three new board members, a stressed private equity program and executive turnover, all under the pressure of a 70 per cent funded status and a maturing membership at the $340 billion fund.
Sarah RundellFebruary 26, 2019
Strategy
Value lies where precious data is stored
Organisations across the globe are collecting data, analysing and re-analysing it more and more every day. As this trend continues, data infrastructure – tangible or intangible – becomes increasingly attractive. Canada’s OPTrust cites this reality as the rationale behind the EdgeCore partnership. It thinks data is its own asset class.
James DavisFebruary 25, 2019
Strategy
Asset owners’ climate-change advice
A new guide, Climate Change for Asset Owners, provides case studies and other practical advice for how to get investor organisations focused on climate change, how to craft a related investment strategy and how to implement it. The publication includes content from 10 asset owners.
Amanda WhiteFebruary 6, 2019
Strategy
Dutch trio launches PE co-investment
The Netherlands’ Achmea Investment Management, Blue Sky Group and SPF Beheer have teamed up on a joint investment platform designed to lower fees and expand opportunities in private equity. Jos van Gisbergen, senior portfolio manager for private equity at Achmea, explains how it works.
Sarah RundellJanuary 31, 2019