APG, which manages investments for Dutch pension funds including the giant ABP, has finalised its strategic investment plan for 2010-2012. Amanda White spoke to managing director of strategic portfolio management, Ronald Wuijster, about why there is a continued trend to diversification away from developed market equities and how the portfolio construction methodology has altered.
Private equity hurting from the boom
No matter what they say, private equity managers will struggle to deliver stellar returns from the vintages of the global recession. Simon Mumme speaks to Jane Welsh, global head of private markets research at Towers Watson, about why the glut of capital committed to private equity in its heyday could depress future returns.
The beta-alpha ratio will yield more success
Using a “Beta-Alpha Ratio” will yield more success in choosing managers ex-ante, compared to other methodology prevalent in the consulting industry, according to a new paper by Wurts Associates’ director of research, Eric Petroff, and research associate, Curtis Yasutake.
Ezra’s guide to good investment governance
Co chair of global consulting at Russell, Don Ezra, says the progress towards best practice in investment governance is painfully slow. He spoke to Amanda White about why that path is worth enduring and some principles for creating a good governance structure.
CalPERS collaborates on enterprise risk assessment
The speed with which CalPERS can fulfil its desire to become a risk intelligent organisation has been given a reality check with discussions between the Californian fund and TIAA-CREF revealing it takes two to five years to fully implement an effective enterprise risk-management structure, and importantly a risk intelligent culture in an organisation.
Instos “suppress” their home country biases
Institutional investors continued to suppress home country biases and globalise equity portfolios during 2009, a year in which risk appetite returned as equity markets rallied and short-dated credit strategies thrived, according to manager search data from Mercer Investment Consulting.
