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.
We first published this document in November 2005 during a period of healthy markets and around the peak of the US housing bubble. The main conclusion from the note was that we had just been through an unparalleled period of returns in all asset classes.
In early 2007, we started advising clients that we thought the next major investment opportunity would be in distressed securities. As the credit crisis has unfolded and the first ripples of this tidal wave have appeared, we have often been asked for our views on how to structure and fund these types of investments
The unwinding of several high profile infrastructure funds in the recent past has prompted questions as to the performance of infrastructure assets/investments and the impact of the current credit markets, on the outlook for the sector. Mercer remains positive on the long-term fundamentals for the infrastructure sector, especially in the emerging markets. Moreover, we believe
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