Khazanah pulls state-owned firms from jaws of crisis

The financial crisis struck as many of the state-owned portfolio companies held by Khazanah Nasional Berdad, Malaysia’s $23 billion (RM82 billion) sovereign wealth fund (SWF), were learning to operate with new executive leaders and, crucially, less gearing. Simon Mumme charts the progress of the manager’s attempts to strengthen and diversify the Malaysian economy throughout the crisis and beyond.

 

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Focus on medium-term, too, can add 1-1.5% to returns

As institutional investors have been hit hard by events of the past 18 months, there has been a surge of interest in the adoption of an additional, mid-term, time frame in which to provide investment targets. Watson Wyatt believes pension funds should allocate between 5 and 15 per cent of their risk budget to dynamic asset allocation.

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Hermes chief calls for mandate overhaul

Pension funds should demand an overhaul in the product offerings of funds managers and change the terms of mandates to incorporate environmental, social and governance issues in portfolios, according to Colin Melvin, chief executive of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, who pointed to a number of funds in the UK, including the owner of Hermes, BT Pension Scheme, considering such action.

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