Hermes, the investment management arm of the £28 billion ($45 billion) BT Pension Scheme in the UK, is building a ’boutique of boutiques’ via an aggressive expansion plan that includes lifting funds management teams from the private sector, with the aim of selling its alpha expertise to other pension funds globally from January 1, 2010.
Jeremy Grantham on just desserts and silly markets
The GMO chief argues why honouring Ben Bernanke is similar to saluting the captain of the Titanic, and why making banks that are ‘too big too fail’ even bigger is sheer lunacy, while identifying other instances in which many of the people enjoying financial incentives, rewards and public praise in the US are unworthy recipients.
P8 told to cut developing world’s carbon
Gareth Thomas, Minister of State with the Department for International Development in the United Kingdom, has urged pension funds to help boost private funding for low carbon investments in the developing world, calling on the group of investors at the P8 Summit to consider potential public financing mechanisms emerging from the private sector, including advanced market commitments, cornerstone funds and challenge funds.
Recapitalisation and recovery in the REIT market
The REIT market will not consistently outperform the broader equity and fixed income markets has it has done for thepast 20 years, according to this research by Mercer Real Estate Boutique’s David Nix and Michelle Reuter, but there will be pockets of opportunity ripe for stock pickers.
Joe Dear warns of “reform facade”
Chief investment officer of CalPERS, and chair of the Council of Institutional Investors, Joe Dear, has warned of a “reform facade” as memories of the crisis fade and resistance to reform instensifies, calling for a more comprehensive regulatory umbrella, and specifically for most over the counter derivatives to be traded on exchanges, in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington this week.
Deafeating short-termism: Why pension funds must lead
In the fall issue of the Rotman International Journal of Pension Management, Ed Waitzer, the Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance at York University, Canada, argues the time has come for pension fund trustees and managers to lead rather than be dragged along. This article proposes a number of steps that can be taken to better align incentives and frame decision-making for longer-term perspectives.
