The latest
Uncategorised posts

Building consensus for investment beliefs at CalPERS

An investment-beliefs workshop for the CalPERS board, held in April, revealed five areas, including active management, where the views of the board and staff lacked consensus. The contentious, or unsettled, topics for discussion were active management, private asset classes, sustainability (environmental, social and governance), investment performance targets and stakeholder considerations. At the board workshop, Janine […]
Amanda WhiteMay 10, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Behind PGGM’s ESG index

In 2010 PGGM conducted a study to see if it was possible to reduce the number of companies it invested in from 4000 to 400, based on its environmental, social and governance leanings, and still maintain it’s beta risk/return profile. The idea was that the €133-billion ($174-billion) fund would better know and understand what it […]
Amanda WhiteMay 3, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Holland’s hybrid: defined ambition

Jan Tamerus, actuary director at PGGM, was instrumental in developing the new Dutch pension defined-ambition structure. Back in 2006, he was involved in looking at the sustainability of the defined benefit system and in concluding it was not in fact sustainable, the idea of defined ambition evolved. One of the key reasons for not going […]
Amanda WhiteMay 1, 2013
Uncategorised posts

APG’s Wuijster refines asset management

APG, which manages €314 billion ($480 billion), has always been innovative. Ronald Wuijster earned a reputation as somewhat of a pension rockstar when he introduced the idea of intellectual property rights as an asset class and bought the music rights to a number of high profile musicians from the contemporary to classical. That investment, which […]
Amanda WhiteApril 19, 2013
Investor Profile

NZ Super: contrarian Kiwis rewrite rules

No one who works at New Zealand Super has a business card that has an asset class attached to it. This simple representation speaks volumes to the investment approach taken by the fund. One could work for the strategy team or the investment analysis team, but the investment structure by which NZ Super invests, such […]
Amanda WhiteApril 17, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Siguler: buy good quality companies

As the world and companies globalise, George Siguler, managing director and founding partner of private equity firm, Siguler Guff, has a simple recommendation for investors. “My recommendation for stock investors is to look at great global companies,” he says. “Look at companies like Johnson and Johnson, Unilever or Boeing. They all have great balance sheets […]
Amanda WhiteApril 5, 2013
<131of254>