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Technology
HESTA prepares AI investment framework for total fund clarity
The A$98 billion ($64 billion) Australian super fund HESTA is laying the groundwork for a more systematic framework for using AI across its total portfolio, solidifying use cases in research, forecasting, risk management and private assets that all centres on the objective of “seeing risks earlier and clearer”.
News
US Department of Labor slams OECD on ‘Marxist’ ESG policies
The US Department of Labor has publicly condemned the OECD for “pushing members to politicise their pension systems by integrating ESG factors unmoored from returns”, declaring that it will no longer support the OECD's responsible investment principles and the concept of ESG "a Marxist march through corporate culture".
Equities
Future Fund flags expansion of active equity program
Emerging markets, Europe and Japan are all in focus for Australia’s sovereign wealth fund as it looks to ramp up active equities and diversify its exposures, as the fund grows wary of US markets amidst heightened political uncertainty.
Featured Story
Litigation, fees and structures: Why 401(k) plans won’t jump into alts, yet
President Trump has fired the starting gun on encouraging America's 401(k) plans to invest in private assets but corporate plans remain concerned about fees, structures and litigation. Meanwhile many DB funds are voicing their concerns about how it might impact access to investments, and alpha, and change the asset class.
Asset Classes
OMERS flags end to supercharged private equity returns
OMERS has warned that investors need to temper their expectations regarding the performance of more recent private equity vintages, as the favourable environment of high valuation multiples and low interest rates that spurred over a decade of superior returns begins to fade, said APAC head Ashish Goyal in Singapore.
Opinion
The efficiency trap
Will the relentless pursuit of efficiency undermine our ability to build a resilient and sustainable future? Andrea Caloisi, a researcher at the Thinking Ahead Institute at WTW, explores how complex systems, driven by short-term optimisation, may be fuelling long-term fragility.
Investor Profile
PFZW’s IC chair explains why cutting equity names hones impact
Professor Dirk Schoenmaker, investment committee chair of the €250 billion ($291 billion) Dutch healthcare pension fund Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW), whose expertise has helped inform its "3D" investment strategy, explains why less is more in an equity allocation with fewer stocks.
News
CPP hires former AIMCo Singapore head to bolster TPA
After hiring former CalPERS' investment chief Ben Meng six months ago, Canadian pension giant CPP Investments has added another seasoned pension executive, Kevin Bong, to its investment team, in a sign that the C$732 billion ($530 billion) behemoth is staffing up to focus on alpha and enhance total portfolio management.
Infrastructure
APG’s infra ramp-up: APAC markets in focus
APG Asset Management, Europe’s largest pension investor, is set to double its global infrastructure allocation in the next five years and is stepping up its push into infrastructure assets in the Asia Pacific with a focus on Australia, India and Southeast Asia and opportunistic investments in Japan and Korea.
Opinion
Data ‘slop’ and disinformation emerge as systemic risks for investors
Will AI-fuelled misinformation overwhelm investors’ ability to make sound decisions? The Thinking Ahead Institute’s Tim Hodgson examines the systemic risks of 'data slop' and why data provenance should be a strategic priority.
Organisational Design
Why investors must engage on the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance
Will antimicrobial resistance derail decades of medical and economic progress, or can coordinated action avert a global crisis? Anastassia Johnson, researcher at the Thinking Ahead Institute, examines the growing threat of drug-resistant infections and the role investors can play in driving sustainable solutions.
Featured Story
Norway’s KLP drops defence groups because of weapon sales to Israel
As geopolitical uncertainty leaves many European pension funds exploring how to invest more in defence, Norway's KLP has just divested two listed defence companies for selling weapons to Israel because of human rights concerns in Gaza.
Featured Story
UK investor group forms to highlight the importance of good governance
A group of UK pension funds have formed a new pressure group, the Governance for Growth Investor Campaign, to boost oversight of the companies in which they invest, warning that the British government’s sweeping overhaul of listing rules has watered down longstanding shareholder rights.
News
ACERA eyes global, more active approach for $6.6b equity portfolio
The $13.2 billion Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association fund is planning a major overhaul of its equity portfolio, shifting from a passive US-focused approach to a more global, actively-managed strategy in an effort to boost returns. The shift will result in manager terminations and searches.
Equities
China’s $420b social security fund eyes ‘AI+’ theme in A-shares
China’s $420 billion National Social Security Fund is scoping out technology-related investment opportunities in domestic equities, particularly the so-called “AI+” theme where artificial intelligence is married with traditional industries to enhance profitability, which has been gathering market and political momentum.
Private Credit
Mid-market, asset-backed private credit shines for growing Asian allocators
Asia's growing investors, including university endowments and family offices, are hunting for returns in lower-middle market and asset-backed private credit. In an interview with Top1000funds.com, head of Asian clients at the $92 billion OCIO Cambridge Associates, Prabhat Ojha, talks manager selection and Asian allocators' rising appetite for alternatives.
Investor Profile
AP4: Why a dynamic, shorter term allocation is paying off
Volatile markets have provided a rich hunting ground and opportunistic best ideas have come thick and fast for AP4’s new five-pronged global allocation made up of systematic equity, currency and rates, asset allocation, hedge funds/external mandates and analysis. Magdalena Högberg explains the risks and opportunities of the best ideas allocation.
FIS Stanford 2018
FIS Stanford Photo Gallery
View photos from the 2018 Fiduciary Investors Symposium, held at Stanford University, United States.
FIS Stanford 2018
China’s enticing, challenging market
Inefficient markets and an explosion of technological innovation fuelled by Millennial consumers make China a tantalising prospect but accessing strong returns there isn’t as simple as it looks.
FIS Stanford 2018
Protecting human capital helps everyone
Investors have plenty to gain from helping to protect human rights in supply chains and managing the human costs during technological disruption and the transition to a low-carbon economy.
FIS Stanford 2018
How to follow megatrends to success
The big themes that will fuel growth in coming decades are interconnected and subject to change. An expert panel gave advice on riding societal change to outperformance.
FIS Stanford 2018
How the active complements the passive
Investors discuss the various ways that two styles often presented as if they are enemies in fact work hand in hand across portfolios to produce returns.
Organisational Design
Accountability, performance at the heart of Temasek’s three-way split
Singapore’s Temasek has unveiled its biggest organisational overhaul in more than a decade, splitting its investment portfolio into three entities to “sharpen” investment focus, boost accountability and align performance metrics. It came as the fund targets a 60/40 split between the “resilient” and “dynamic” assets to weatherproof its portfolio.
Investor Profile
A rock and a hard place: GEPF on the challenges of transitioning coal
Reducing exposure to the risk in coal is particularly challenging for South Africa’s $122 billion Government Employees Pension Fund. ESG manager Belaina Negash explains the complexities due to the industry's tie with the economy and the fund's transition framework.
Asset Allocation
France’s FRR ups risk in line with longer term investment horizon
Fonds de reserve pour les retraites (FRR), France’s €21 billion ($24 billion) pension reserve fund, has increased its weighting to equity in line with a new strategic asset allocation to reflect the investor's longer return horizon. It is also eyeing more unlisted assets including private equity, private debt and infrastructure.
Asset Allocation
University of California: Less is more and simple is better in investing
Jagdeep Singh Bachher, the CIO who oversees the University of California's $198 billion in pension and endowment assets, says that he wants to keep investment simple as the fund removed its hedge fund allocation completely, conceding "it’s not one of the things we are good at doing".
News
KIC eyes pivot to total portfolio approach in latest review
The $206.5 billion Korea Investment Corporation has become the latest asset owner weighing a shift into the total portfolio approach in an attempt to boost investment returns. After putting out an RFP for a consulting partner in May, it will conduct a review into early next year about TPA's feasibility.
InFocus
TAA critical to adding value over the next six to 18 months
After several painful years, geographical diversification is finally working and will continue to work, at least in the short term, with increasing signs of a valuation advantage for non-US stocks and bonds, according to T. Rowe Price’s Sébastien Page. He says it's time to make use of tactical asset allocation.
Investor Profile
USS swings into surplus but flags re-think after Thames losses
USS says losses in Thames Water have led to deep reflection on how it will invest in regulated assets in the future, flagging the need for consistent regulation to support pension fund investment. As the fund celebrates its 50th year it records a surplus for the first time since 2008.
Strategy
UK’s transition-focused SWF gets green light
UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves didn’t waste any time approving the UK’s new SWF aimed at funding the energy transition. As it begins to lay down structure and governance frameworks critics point to the challenges of bringing projects to a level where they are investable.