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Lay trustees still play vital role
Corporate failings and their impact on UK pension schemes are damaging the reputations of lay trustees, but they remain critical assets for pension boards, professor Robin Ellison argues.
New study flags risk in Dutch pensions’ concentrated stock strategy
Under strict ESG guidelines and pressure to closely engage with their investee companies, Dutch pension funds have developed an affinity for concentrated equity allocations with some owning as few as 65 stocks in their entire portfolio. But the Erasmus University flagged the diversification risk and higher volatility the strategy introduces.
Making Sense of Distressed Investment Opportunities
In early 2007, we started advising clients that we thought the next major investment opportunity would be in distressed securities. As the credit crisis has unfolded and the first ripples of this tidal wave have appeared, we have often been asked for our views on how to structure and fund these types of investments
Viewing the world differently: Alaska Permanent Fund’s new asset allocation
The $32 billion Alaska Permanent Fund has taken a unique approach to asset allocation, re-organising the fund according to how investments respond to economic conditions and their purpose in the portfolio. Chief executive, Mike Burns spoke to Amanda White about the new approach, which also includes a search for four ‘external CIO’ mandates. Alaska Permanent
Why bonds are not the answer: John Lewis
Like most defined benefit pension funds, the £2 billion (US$3.27 billion) John Lewis Partnership Pensions Trust is struggling to cope with the funding pressures resulting from the financial crisis. But as pension investment manager Andrew Chapman tells Kristen Paech, bonds are not the solution.
EDHEC puts CDS under the spotlight
In recently released research, Dominic O’Kane, affiliated professor of finance at EDHEC Business School, challenges the assumptions about the operation of the eurozone sovereign-linked credit default swaps (CDS) market. The European Parliament decided to permanently ban so-called “naked” CDS in October 2011 on the back of claims that their speculative use caused or accelerated the
Asian investors reveal home bias challenges
For investors based in Asia, a home bias can throw up some challenges that affect investors homed in other regions much less. Three Asia-based investors – Temasek, Brunei Investment Agency and Khazanah – outlined to the Fiduciary Investors Symposium in Singapore last week how they face into those challenges.
Net zero: engagement and renewable energy investments pay off at USS
The UK’s largest private pension fund, USS has made ground on its path to net zero with effective engagement, measuring the Scope 3 emissions of its corporate assets and bottom-up carbon analysis focused on transition risk in emerging market equities. But investors need policy makers to do much more.
CalPERS reduces total tracking error
CalPERS has reduced its total fund tracking error from 2.17 per cent to 1.94 per cent in the quarter to June 30, but it still sits above the budgeted 1.5 per cent.
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