All articles by Fennell Betson – Page 20
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Features
Travelling cautiously
Outside the window of Ton Groeneveld’s office in Utrecht, the trains run past constantly, a perpetual reminder if he ever needed it of what his job is all about. He is chief investment officer at SPF Beheer, the management company that was formed in 1994 to administer the e10bn Railways ...
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Features
'Simple fundamental philoshophy'
One of the largest but most unknown firms in the investment world is BlackRock, admits its founder and chief executive Larry Fink. “This is not something we planned for, but we just do not believe in ‘self-marketing’. Our whole mandate is to achieve acceptance through performance and client service.” The ...
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News
EC says directive is essential for single market
EUROPE - The proposed pensions directive is the most important part of the EC plan for a single market for financial services by 2005, said Jean-Claude Thébault of the EC at the EFRP/NAPF International Pensions Conference in Brussels...
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News
Member states are blocking 'prudent man' directive
EUROPE – As many as eight European member states may be blocking the proposed European Directive on occupational pension funds due to opposition to the prudent person investment rule, Othmar Karas, European Parliament rapporteur for the directive, has told the EFRP/NAPF International Conference in Brussels....
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News
EC calls on Europe's pensions community to act
EUROPE - The EFRP proposal for a pan-European pension vehicle – the European Institute for Occupational Retirement Provision (EIORP), did not get through the ECOFIN council meeting last week, tax expert Peter Schonewille said today (Oct 22) at the EFRP/NAPF International conference in Brussels....
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News
Kottmann quits Complementa to go independent
SWITZERLAND - Felix Kottmann is leaving leading Swiss consultants Complementa after nine years with the St Gallen-based firm. Kottmann, who is a member of the executive committee, says: “After this time, I feel it is important to take a break and do something new. I think it is the ...
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News
New private equity and joint venture at Kleinwort
UK - A new private equity fund is being launched by Kleinwort Capital, a joint venture set up by investment trust Kleinwort Development Fund and Dresdner Kleinwort Capital, the private equity arm of Dresdner Bank.
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News
Wassum in strategic alliance with Hewitt
SWEDEN -International consultants Hewitt Associates have formed a strategic alliance with Nordic advisers Wassum Investment Consulting, as part of its plans for global coverage.
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Features
Spezialfonds' growth rate eases
Is the rate of expansion of the German institutional investment market on the wane? The vehicle most used by local institutional investors is the Spezialfond and according to this year’s Kandlbinder report which is issued as separate supplement with this issue of IPE, the rate of growth of these vehicles ...
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Features
Doctors' healthy fund
Like most Danish pension funds, the Copenhagen-based Laegernes Pensionskasse (LPK) is a defined contribution (DC) arrangement, but operates under the guaranteed return basis. This requirement is raising real concerns in parts of the pensions and insurance sectors, since they both work under the insurance law. “We have different rates of ...
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Features
Europe: a difficult jigsaw
The problems in European pensions are structural, Paul Audu, head of investments at the London Borough of Hackney £500m (E790m) pension fund told the North European Pensions & Investing conference in Copenhagen last month. “Wide ranging reforms are needed – the pensions market in Europe is incoherent due to differences ...
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News
One in five Swedes makes active PPM choice
SWEDEN - Less than a fifth of Swedes made active investment fund choices in the latest round of contributions to the country’s PPM system, according to figures emerging from the country’s Premium Pension Authority (PPM)...
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News
Denmark's ATP in $3bn private equity project
DENMARK - ATP, Denmark’s funded supplementary first pillar pension plan is targeting private equity (PE) investment of up to $3bn (e3.3bn), which would make it one of Europe’s largest pension investors in the asset class....
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Features
Making the big switch
The challenge facing the UK’s electricity industry a decade ago was that of converting its virtually monolithic industry-wide pension scheme into a system that met the needs of the new multi-employer environment. In meeting this challenge the industry, both on the distribution and generating sides, has worked unceasingly since privatisation ...
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News
CSIF reports positive results for 2000
SWITZERLAND - The Civil Service Insurance Fund of the Canton of Zurich, which has some 70,000 members came through last year’s turbulent markets satisfactorily, according to its chairman Christian Huber.
