All articles by Gail Moss – Page 49
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News
IAPF mixed reaction to Irish pensions review
IRELAND - The Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF) has warned that tax breaks for savings alternatives to pension schemes could encourage members to leave occupational schemes unless there is a level playing field between the two types of arrangement.
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News
Awareness campaign launched on new securities
EUROPE - Four European institutions have launched an awareness campaign to prepare issuers and their agents for a new legal and holding structure for international debt securities, which will be launched from the end of June.
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News
Hedge funds reduce portfolio risk - Edhec
EUROPE - Using hedge funds can halve the probability of extreme loss in a portfolio, according to a new study from Edhec Risk and Asset Management Research Centre.
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News
UK high streets a magnet for private equity
UK - Private equity investment in the UK’s high street continues to be robust, despite concerns that consumer spending is about to fall.
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News
Stock market exposure top priority with investors
GLOBAL - Equity funds hit a record high in November as investors responded to the end-year index rises, according to FERI Fund Market Information.
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News
IMA back office rules to reduce processing costs
UK - New IMA fund processing guidelines have been published to help UK investment management firms reduce risk and cost.
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News
EC could sue UK over Equitable Life
EUROPE - The UK Government could face legal action by the European Commission if a committee of MEPs finds it did not correctly apply European legislation in the Equitable Life debacle.
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News
Hermes plans commodity fund for pension schemes
UK - Hermes Pensions Management is planning to launch an index commodity fund exclusively for pension schemes early next year.
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News
UK trustees say they lack understanding
UK – Less than a third of UK pension scheme trustees consider they have a very good understanding of investment principles.
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Features
Spain catches PE fever
Compared with the rest of Europe, Spain’s involvement with private equity has soared over the past year or two. Last year, according to the European Venture Capital Association. private equity investment equalled 0.246% of the country’s gross domestic product, placing it fifth in the European rankings, ahead of countries such ...
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Features
Basque fund develops venturesome role
Geroa EPSV is a defined contribution pension fund which was set up to complement the Spanish state pension scheme. It covers employees in Gipuzkoa, one of the three provinces making up the Basque Country region. The fund has 100,000 contributing members and is currently worth about €500m. Geroa was started ...
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Features
Italy's longer-term optimism
Italy does not have as consistent a private equity culture as other large European economies. Last year, private equity investment as a whole made up just 0.110% of its gross domestic product. This placed Italy twelfth in the European rankings, behind not only the traditional leaders in private equity in ...
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Features
Unicredito dips its toe
Unicredito Italiano Fondo Pensione Per Il Personale Delle Aziende Del Gruppo is the pension fund of the Unicredito international banking group. The company is the result of a merger between the Banco Unicredito, which is over a hundred years old, Credito Italiano, the German HIB bank and Bank Austria. The ...
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Features
Patience is the watchword
The €560m Nordurlands Lifeyrissjodur is a pan-industry private pension fund for employees in Iceland’s Northern Province. Its 12,000 members include workers in the fishing and manufacturing industries, as well as the service sectors. The hybrid scheme is biased towards the defined contribution model, although it is obliged to pay a ...
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Features
Land of good intentions
Iceland has a population of only 300,000 and a GDP of €7bn. However, there are around 20 pension funds worth well over a hundred million euros, with the biggest ones worth more than a billion. But private equity as a pension fund asset is still in its early stages, though ...
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Features
Finding the best way to spread bets
Diversification is the byword for investing in listed equities. But for investing in private equity - a much more risky asset class - the importance of spreading one’s bets is far greater. The basic route into private equity is via a fund investing in a basket of individual companies. However, ...
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Features
Gradually losing their inhibitions
As a Scandinavian country, Norway has been more exposed to the private equity culture than most other countries in Europe. And according to the latest figures from the European Venture Capital Association, Norway is slowly creeping up the European private equity rankings in overall terms. Last year, private equity investment ...
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Features
Tougher times in giving market
UK charities have enjoyed bumper returns on their investments over the past year. The average charity fund achieved a total return of 13%, according to preliminary results for the latest Charity Fund survey from WM Performance Services. However, the gains are largely caused by the strong market rally in the ...