Swedish Ethical Council
goes proactive

Moving from reactive engagement to proactively working with companies and regulators to avoid major environmental, social or corporate governance (ESG) events has become a key focus of the Swedish Ethical Council, its new head says. Newly appointed chairwoman Ulrika Danielson says that the council, which is a collaborative engagement effort for the AP 1 to … Read more

SWFs in real estate

The 800-pound gorilla of the real estate market, sovereign wealth funds, is increasingly exercising its muscle by investing directly in property as a way of cutting fees and potentially achieving better returns, new research finds. The latest snapshot of sovereign wealth funds’ interest in property by alternative-asset researcher Preqin shows that 85 per cent of … Read more

Hedging implications for
liability-driven investors

Managing surplus risk enables pension plans and endowments to align their asset allocations with their future obligations. Market Insight:Analyzing Hedges for Liability-Driven Investors seeks to better understand the drivers of surplus risk and to analyse the potentially subtle impact of specific hedges. In Goldberg and Kim’s case study, a term-structure hedge using an interest-rate swap … Read more

Real estate sustainability

The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), which will launch its third annual sustainability survey today, has announced a partnership with the Global Reporting Initiative to enhance sustainability reporting. The survey allows participating fund managers to benchmark their portfolio on environmental and social performance against their peers. The GRESB Foundation is backed by 30 institutional … Read more

Global property lures investors

Property investors should look beyond the current languid growth in developed market economies and position their portfolios for a recovery in the world economy in 2013 and 2014, Mark Roberts the global head of RREEF Real Estate says. Roberts, who also chairs the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF), points to initial yield … Read more