Germany’s €70 billion pension provider VBL is increasing its diversification, notably investing in overseas real estate outside Germany for the first time. It's also increasing its tilt to international equities over European stocks, enabled by an organisational and investment process overhaul.
The €9.5 billion DanishPædagogernes Pension, PBU, is in the process of consolidating the number of managers in its listed equity portfolio. The decision at the fund - which has around 10 large, focused equity mandates - is linked to an ambition to reduce the number of companies in the portfolio in the belief that fewer companies in the 42 per cent actively-managed equity allocation allows greater ESG oversight.
US companies have some defensible profitability advantages but elevated margin levels may be poised for a reversal of fortune. The tide appears to be turning on some of the secular trends that have supported high US profit margins.
QSuper CIO, Brad Holzberger, has long stood out from his peers by loading up on long-term government bonds and even the recent sudden collapse of yields, as investors started pricing in slower growth, hasn’t deterred him from sticking with this asset class. The retiring CIO of one of Australia's largest funds about expectations.
The $700 billion Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, ADIA, is boosting its internal fixed income capabilities and scaling up capacity to run active strategies in-house as it simplifies the portfolio to become more fleet-of-foot.
The $27 billion Nebraska Investment Council is conducting a deep dive into its fixed income portfolio, inviting up to 25 current and potential external managers to pitch their best ideas. The process begins by wiping any preconceived notions around the allocation’s role in the overall portfolio and justifying its place as if from scratch. It ends two years later with the issuing of mandates.
The size factor has recently come under attack from smart beta providers because its performance has lagged behind other factors. A common recommendation is to remove size from the factor menu, to give more weight to factors with better performance. But due to its low correlation with other factors, size offers substantial diversification benefits.
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