Despite recent investment losses, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) collectively grew by 18 per cent in 2008, bringing the sum of assets held by the vehicles to US$3.9 trillion, a report from International Financial Services London (IFSL) found.
Best ideas exist, so why do managers include underperformers?
Randy Cohen from Harvard Business School, Christopher Polk from the London School of Economics, and Bernhard Silli from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the London School of Economics, provide powerful evidence that mutual fund managers can pick stocks that outperform the market.
Giant Texas plan defers performance pay for execs
Chief investment officer of the US$81 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Britt Harris, has offered to forego an estimated $167,935 in performance incentive pay for 2008. At the most recent board meeting, the TRS board accepted Harris’ offer and also voted to defer all remaining investment division performance pay until the fund experiences a year of positive returns. In 2008 the fund experienced a 27 per cent drop in market value.
US endowment slams consultants
The $4 billion Claremont University Consortium (CUC) has criticised the service small endowment funds in the US are receiving from their investment consultants, labelling the solutions as “cookie cutter, boilerplate answers”.
Reducing risk not risky asset classes: AP3
Sweden’s Third National Pension Fund, AP3, has rejigged its long-term strategic asset allocation and increased its exposure to alternatives. Kristen Paech talks to chief investment officer Erik Valtonen about the reasons behind the changes.
Full transparency of big hedge fund positions from now on: AIMA
The peak body for the global hedge fund industry, the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) has backed a proposal mandating the full transparency and disclosure of ‘stematically significant’ positions and risk exposures held by hedge funds to their national regulators.
