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Investor Profile

Alternative benchmarks attractive for Strathclyde

For many trustees, fundamental indexing is still too much of a leap to risk any serious asset allocation. But the £11 billion Glasgow-based Strathclyde Pension Fund, one of the largest UK local authority schemes, plans to invest in the strategy. The idea is to track an equity index that weights companies according to their economic […]
Sarah RundellDecember 12, 2012
Uncategorised posts

African countries come to the sovereign wealth fund party

Many of the countries with the largest oil reserves also boast the largest sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). And yet African producers, like newcomer Ghana, Angola, and Nigeria which has been pumping oil since the 1950s, haven’t saved much of their oil revenue. Now, in an effort to replicate the long-term growth of funds like Norway’s […]
Sarah RundellDecember 5, 2012
Investor Profile

Calming the waters of uncertainty at UK seafarers’ fund

The UK’s £3.3-billion ($5.6-billion) Merchant Navy Officers’ Pension Fund (MNOPF) is poised to offload the final portion of its defined-benefit liabilities in the old section of the scheme. The fund, which has provided pensions to the shipping industry since 1937, comprises a $3.2-billion new section and a $2-billion old section, closed since 1978 and with […]
Sarah RundellNovember 23, 2012
Investor Profile

Controlling strategy inhouse at UK coal scheme

Until a few years ago, every aspect of the investment strategy at the UK’s £20-billion ($32-billion) coal industry pension scheme was outsourced. The main inhouse task at the pension fund was benefit payment but now, in a fresh approach spearheaded by straight-talking 38-year old New Zealander, Stefan Dunatov, the new chief investment officer of the […]
Sarah RundellNovember 21, 2012
Uncategorised posts

Bit of a bubble in the property pool

In a landmark project, the £11-billion ($17.5-billion) Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF), a scheme for 10 local councils and hundreds of small regional employers including schools and charities, will invest in a series of residential housing projects with local authorities. Lauded as a completely new way of funding house building in the city, Manchester council […]
Sarah RundellNovember 14, 2012
Governance

Railpen, the open DB fund with locomotion

Despite the constant pull on Railpen chief executive Chris Hitchen’s expertise in other directions, most recently helping to run NEST, the UK government’s new low-cost pension scheme, he is resolute that his primary task is ensuring Railpen, inhouse manager of the £19-billion ($30.4 billion) pension scheme for Britain’s rail industry, successfully delivers on its monthly […]
Sarah RundellNovember 7, 2012
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