All Alternatives articles – Page 129
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Features
Mushrooming demand
Demand for currency management and overlay has ballooned in the last two years as investors embrace it as an alterative source of return. As currency managers tune their services to the needs of pension funds and other institutions, the future of the sector is beginning to take shape. Currency overlay ...
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Features
Crunch year for pension funds
It would be wrong to make hasty conclusions about the value added by alternative investment strategies. Hedge funds should be allowed to show their worth over time. Nonetheless, this year could prove to be a turning point. Consultants Wilshire Associates managing director Howard Yata has suggested that it is too ...
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Features
Core satellite thinking in orbit
Funds of hedge funds are now pension funds’ preferred route into hedge fund investing. Of the €1.2bn invested in hedge funds by Europe’s 50 largest pension funds, €920m is in the hands of funds of hedge funds, according to Boston-based research consultancy Cerulli Associates. One effect of this has been ...
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Features
Fear of a bubble unfounded
The global hedge fund market has grown at a rate of circa 20% over the last four years, total assets under management reaching an estimated $1trn (e793bn) by year-end 2004. Inflows did slow, however, during the second half of 2004, not least because of the comparatively modest performance experienced in ...
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Features
Belgium starts to warm up
As a nation, Belgium comes way down the list of private equity investors in Europe. In 2003, the latest year for which figures are available, private equity investments equalled only 0.1% of gross domestic product, according to the European Venture Capital Association. That was less than half the European average ...
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Features
Over a barrel
The world has become accustomed to increased crude oil prices in recent years. But while most oil analysts ascribe the major price upsets to factors inherent to the crude oil market, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has put part of the blame on the speculative role of pension ...
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Features
Alpha: looking in wrong place?
Institutional investors coping with a low-return environment have recently been pouring unprecedented amounts of capital into hedge funds. The stated motives for doing so vary, but are all rooted in the search for higher expected returns. Some point to the track records of hedge funds during the recent bear market ...
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Features
Case for active style allocation
Although the existing literature seems to concur on the interest of hedge funds as valuable investment alternatives, there seem to be several shortcomings in current industry practice when it comes to fully capitalising on the advantages of including hedge funds in an investor’s asset allocation. So far, the only solution ...
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Features
Absolute returns harder to find?
In theory, hedge funds are all about delivering absolute returns – finding the elusive alpha. Until now, it has been universally accepted that the objective of a hedge fund is to provide positive absolute returns over a medium-term investment horizon irrespective of market environment and traditional market performance. But in ...
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News
McAlpine taps SEI for equities
UK –Alfred McAlpine Pension Trustees has awarded SEI Investments a £45.6m (€66.3m) global developed markets equity mandate.
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News
Equities forgotten as UK schemes shift €58bn
UK – Equities are becoming the “forgotten asset class” as UK pension schemes shifted £40bn (€58.3bn) out of stocks into bonds last year.
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News
Pensions directive at risk amid German vote
GERMANY - Germany could miss the deadline for transposing the directive on occupational pensions if early elections take place, pension experts say.
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News
GSAM names Curtis head of sub-advisory
UK - Goldman Sachs Asset Management has appointed Merrill Lynch’s David Curtis to the new role of head of sub-advisory.
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News
Commodities need governance - consultant
UK - Lack of time and resources are among the factors behind the lack of development in commodities in the UK, according to a Watson Wyatt consultant, Alasdair Macdonald.
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News
EU Commission eyes hedge fund regulation
EUROPE – The European Commissioner in change of the internal market, Charlie McCreevy, has identified the “patchwork quilt” of hedge fund regulation in Europe as something that needs to be looked at.
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News
French reserve fund in SRI move
FRANCE – The French reserve fund, the Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites, has made progress in its move towards socially responsible investing.
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News
German BVI sees no need to regulate hedge funds
GERMANY - Fund industry association BVI has urged the government not to tighten regulation of hedge funds active in Germany, arguing that current rules are sufficient.
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News
Dutch schemes’ NIBC ends derivatives venture
NETHERLANDS – NIB Capital, the bank owned by the two largest Dutch pension schemes, is to wind down its 50-50 derivatives joint venture with Petercam following “continued substantial trading losses”.
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News
AP3 says it increases level of active risk
SWEDEN – Tredje AP-fonden, the third Swedish buffer fund, says it is increasing the level of active risk throughout its benchmark portfolio – which will see a global equity group taking full responsibility for equity mandates.
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News
Fidelity institutional chief joins Odey
EUROPE - David Stewart, president of Fidelity International's European institutional business, is to join Odey Asset Management as chief executive.
