All articles by Carolyn Bandel – Page 63
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UK top company pension deficits fall to lowest since 2002
UK – Corporate pension fund deficits of FTSE 100 share index companies have fallen by nearly two thirds since accountancy standards were introduced in 2002, studies has found.
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East Capital recruits Stoltenberg for investment committee
SWEDEN – Prominent Norwegian politician Thorvald Stoltenberg, will join eastern Europe specialist asset manager East Capital’s investment committee, it was announced this morning.
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PensionDanmark sees assets rise to €8.3bn with strong equity returns
DENMARK – Danish pension fund PensionDanmark booked a total investment return of 7% for 2006, raising the scheme’s entire assets to DKK62bn (€8.3bn), despite moderate nominal bond returns.
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Heijman quits Fortis to major on hedge funds in London
NETHERLANDS – Clayton Heijman, global head for Fortis Bank’s alternative investors and investment banks in the merchant banking division, is leaving the bank after nine years to pursue his interests in hedge funds.
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Mercer works with Invensure in Danish market
UK/DENMARK – Mercer Investment Consulting (Mercer) and Danish investment consultant Invensure will cooperate to provide manager research and selection services to Danish institutional investors.
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Corus take-over leaves pensions fund position unclear
GLOBAL – As Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus confirmed the £6.2bn (€9.3bn) take-over by India’s Tata Steel, it remains unclear how much will be injected into the Corus pension scheme in the UK.
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Garrett-Cox heads for Scotland
UK – Katherine Garrett-Cox has resigned as chief investment officer at Morley Fund Management to move to Dundee-based Alliance Trust as group executive director and chief investment officer.
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Dutch giant looks to the trees (updated)
NETHERLANDS – The €209bn Dutch pension fund ABP is mulling a first foray into timberland investments in a further attempt to diversify its portfolio (update with comments from ABP).
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Ballast Nedam denies £75m UK pension liability
UK/NETHERLANDS – Dutch construction company, Ballast Nedam has claimed it never had occupational pension liabilities in the UK, where around 1,000 former employees are likely to experience severe cuts to expected pension.
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Nordea/SEB merger rumours leave funds untroubled
SWEDEN – Swedish pension funds are unfazed by renewed merger rumours between Nordea, the Nordic region’s largest financial services group, and third-largest SEB AB.
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Kraneveld to leave PGGM
NETHERLANDS – Peter Kraneveld, head of international affairs at €81bn Dutch pension scheme PGGM, will leave the fund at the end of this month he announced today.
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German 30-year bond issue take-up ‘disastrous’
EUROPE – European institutional investors have shunned the recently issued German long bonds: for the €6bn bond isseue only €5.885bn were offered, and only €4.9bn were allocated during Wednesday’s auction.
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Insurance for pensions risks ‘not a threat’ to buy-outs
UK – The risk transfer approach as a solution to covering pension fund liabilities is not seen as a threat by Mark Wood, founding chief executive of pension buy-out firm Paternoster. He adds that Paternoster might in future make use of such an approach.
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Oxfam starts Novartis campaign
UK – Responsible investment campaigners FairPensions and international development agency Oxfam, have asked institutional investors to use their shareholder rights to put pressure on pharmaceutical firms.
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€18.8bn fund seeks governance expertise
IRELAND – The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), the Dublin-based asset and liability management arm of the Irish Government, has issued a mandate for shareholder engagement and proxy voting services.
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Builders' scheme opts for liability matching
NETHERLANDS – Dutch construction group VolkerWessels has outsourced the entire investment management of its pension scheme to new Dutch investment fund, First Liability Matching (First-LM).
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USS appoints ABNAMRO Mellon for €7.6bn custody brief
UK – The UK’s £26bn (€38.5bn) Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) has awarded ABN AMRO Mellon Global Securities Services a £5bn global custody, cash management and securities lending solutions mandate.
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PGGM commits €250m to Madeline Albright fund
NETHERLANDS – The €81bn Dutch pension fund PGGM has helped to more than triple the assets of Albright Capital Management, an investment firm chaired by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
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Invesco and Black Rock win builders' fund mandates
UK – The £700m (€1.065bn) Building & Civil Engineering Benefits Scheme (B&CE) has awarded Invesco Perpetual with a £70m absolute return UK equity mandate recently.
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WM reports Dutch pension funds achieve 7.2% in 2006
THE NETHERLANDS – Dutch pension funds, with combined assets under management of €650bn, saw a year-end return of around 7.2%, according to investment performance firm WM Performance Services.
