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New investment pattern in bricks and mortar

Real estate is back in fashion, at least according to a range of recent surveys indicating the growing institutional investor appetite for bricks and mortar. After a tough few years for the industry and with European investors’ priorities changing, the possible renaissance might come with a marked change in investing patterns, though.  More control The […]
Dan BillinghamJune 5, 2013
Asset Classes

Learning from Danish funds’ stable alternative

Despite upturns in equity and bond prices sending 2012 returns into double digits at many large Danish funds, it appears that successfully implementing infrastructure initiatives remains the holy grail of Danish institutional investing. Instead of merely basking in 12.9-per-cent annual returns, Industriens Pension, for instance, used its 2012 results announcement to make a commitment to […]
Dan BillinghamMarch 27, 2013
Investor Profile

Belgium’s KBC fund
thrives on LDI

Edwin Meysmans, chief executive of the KBC Pension Fund, sounds extremely relaxed for a man who rises early to avoid Brussels’ clogged roads on the way to the office. Then again, that Meysmans shies away from the madness of commuting crowds should perhaps be no real surprise given that his fund focuses on avoiding being […]
Dan BillinghamMarch 20, 2013
Opinion

Gloom at NAPF attests to investor adventure

One year on and the job of trustees gathered at the United Kingdom’s National Association of Pension Funds, NAPF, annual investment conference in Edinburgh hasn’t got any easier. As the search for optimism in a low-return world endures, the conference seems to be caught in a time loop. Compared to last year, deciding on the […]
Sarah RundellMarch 13, 2013
Investor Profile

Dutch fund bolsters bonds, chills on bricks

Things are suddenly looking cheerful again in the world of Dutch pensions. The country’s famous tulip fields might not be set to bloom until April, but investors already have a harvest to delight at from a good year of investing. For instance, Hans de Ruiter, chief investment officer of the €2.5-billion ($3.36-billion) TNO pension fund […]
Dan BillinghamFebruary 15, 2013
Investor Profile

Vita Sammelstiftung puts bond holdings under microscope

Samuel Lisse, chief executive of Switzerland’s Vita Sammelstiftung (Vita), is currently in the process of hiring a new head of investment. The new appointee will have plenty resting in the in-tray, it appears, as she starts to assist the investment committee that governs the strategy of the 8.5-billion-Swiss-franc ($9.1-billion) joint foundation. That is not because […]
Dan BillinghamFebruary 8, 2013
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