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Concerns over private equity leave pension funds wary

Institutional investors are clearly attracted to private equity, but remain wary of the sector for its perceived lack of transparency and ability to be measured, high fees and a sense that they cannot invest into the sector as truly equal partners. “It’s clear that now is a time with a lot of flux in private

Costs cast increasing doubt over hedge fund relevance

The inability to scale hedge fund exposures and risks, has led many large investors, like CalPERS this week and ATP last year, to exit their hedge fund programs. Complexity continues to be a drain on the relevancy of hedge funds, but importantly cost is driving the agendas of these investors. As AQR’s Cliff Asness admits,

Why Sunsuper likes hedge funds

One of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, the $27 billion Sunsuper, is adamant that it gets value out of its large hedge fund program. This is against the grain in Australia, where many large funds (with the exception of the Future Fund) choosing not to invest in hedge funds. So why does Sunsuper favour hedge funds?

Japan’s GPIF allocates to smart beta

The $1.3 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan will use factor investing, or smart beta, as a third way of implementing equity mandates, alongside active and passive, following a six-month research project conducted by MSCI that investigated how to best implement the growing interest in factor exposures.   The research project conducted by MSCI

Capital provider: Australia’s Sunsuper

The $26 billion Australian super fund, Sunsuper, is investing in an increasing amount of exclusive unlisted asset deals. Chief investment officer David Hartley says the difficulties of banks in Europe in particular have led the fund down the path of increasing the amount of debt investments in its unlisted exposure. Much of this has been

What’s the impact of the stock:bond correlation?

The correlation between stocks and bonds in a rising interest rate environment can turn positive. So given the likelihood of a rate rise, what should asset allocation look like if investors are forward looking?   One of the growing trends in asset and risk allocations is to adopt a forward-looking view driven by macroeconomics, rather