Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund will soon look to expand its alternatives database project, which evaluates the performance of private markets GPs, to cover more funds. Director of research and analytics speaks with Top1000funds.com on how the $2 trillion pension giant will position the system as its first point of reference for private market manager due diligence.
Italy boasts relatively few institutional investors, but the Milan-based Fondazione Cariplo shows that new investing standards can still be set in the home of the renaissance. The €7-billion ($9.3-billion) foundation’s most coveted investment work is its pioneering Italian funds in social housing – an asset area that has been touted in larger markets as an
Sally Bridgeland, chief executive of BP Pension Trustees, the £18.5-billion ($28.7 billion) pension fund for employees of one the world’s biggest oil companies, only works part-time. She made the decision after a near-fatal skiing accident when she says her life passed before her. She is BP’s first group leader to do so and is evangelical
Spain is a country of high geographic diversity where barren plains meet lush mountains and quiet old villages dot the landscape between vibrant, majestic cities. Fittingly perhaps, the country’s largest occupational pension investor Fonditel shines out as a highly sophisticated investor among an underdeveloped pension landscape. The €3.9-billion ($5.2-billion) fund – that mostly covers employees
United States equities and real estate were the strongest suits at the $26-billion Hartford-based State of Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds (CRPTF) out of an entire portfolio that posted 11.6 per cent in the fiscal year ending June 2013. Now the manager of Connecticut’s six retirement plans and nine trust funds is developing opportunistic
Oregon State Treasury, which runs $80 billion worth of state investments including the $62-billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, is preparing the portfolio for a new dawn. John Skjervem, chief investment officer of the treasury’s investment division, sees the speed and extent of the recent sell-off in fixed income as “a shot across the bow”
Deficit and underfunding at the £6.7-billion ($10.4-billion) pension fund for employees of United Kingdom retailer Marks and Spencer had long weighed down one of the high street’s best known names. But a sustained, conservative investment strategy characterised by a “keen focus on risk management” and “an understanding of the scheme’s liabilities” has helped to turn
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