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Investor Profile

UMR: growth from government bonds?

“We have to move faster than our competitors,” says the chief executive of French retirement fund Union Mutualiste Retraite, Charles Vaquier. It is a phrase that you can hear uttered by business leaders at all sectors and levels, but one that institutional investors rarely emphasise. In chatting about its investment strategy, it soon becomes apparent […]
Dan BillinghamJanuary 30, 2013
Investor Profile

Faith in ethical investing

Received financial wisdom holds that the price of virtue for ethical investors is lower returns. It all depends on the time frame, argues Tom Joy, director of investment for Britain’s Church Commissioners, who manage the Church of England’s £5.2-billion ($8.38 billion) pension fund. The Church Commissioners, as fund managers who are ultimately accountable to God, […]
Richard TomlinsonOctober 17, 2012
Uncategorised posts

Study finds greenness equals performance

There is a positive correlation between the investment performance of REITs and the “greenness” of their portfolio holdings, according to a new paper by Maastricht University’s Piet Eichholtz, Nils Kok and Erkan Yonder. The paper – Portfolio greenness and the financial performance of REITs – finds that investment performance of REITs is positively related to […]
Amanda WhiteSeptember 19, 2012
Uncategorised posts

Benchmarking ESG changes behaviour

The power of benchmarking funds on sustainability is demonstrated by the fact 171 property companies and funds surveyed in the 2012 GRESB benchmarking report reduced GHG emissions by 6 per cent – this is a reduction of 432,000 metric tons of CO2, the equivalent of removing 85,000 cars from the road. The Global Real Estate […]
Amanda WhiteSeptember 19, 2012
Uncategorised posts

Funds chase
the dragon

Institutional investors are turning their attention to Asia, with CalPERS the latest large pension fund to announce a new foray into the region. America’s biggest public pension fund this week announced it would invest $530 million in two new real-estate funds targeting investments in China. Despite concerns about a residential property bubble in China, CalPERS’ […]
SAM RILEYAugust 17, 2012
Uncategorised posts

US public pension funds underperform

US public-pension funds significantly underperform their global peers in real-estate portfolios due to a propensity to manage the assets externally, according to a new ICPM-sponsored research paper by three Maastricht University academics. Value added from funds management in private markets: an examination of pension fund investments in real estate looks at real-estate investing among the […]
Amanda WhiteJune 8, 2012
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