Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 252
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Special Report
Special Report, The M&A Cycle: The M&A premium
There is no doubt that when M&A picks up, potential acquisition targets attract inflated bids. But Christopher O’Dea finds little evidence of a market-wide M&A premium, and even sectors that are usually targets are seeing prices driven much more by other factors
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Country Report
Pensions in Central & Eastern Europe: The ‘living organism’ of Macedonian pensions a decade after reforms
Macedonia was one of the latest countries in Eastern Europe to restructure its pension system, having implemented a major reform in 2005.
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Special Report
Special Report, The M&A Cycle: Feeding frenzy
While European valuations have dipped recently thanks to growth fears, cash and equity-rich trade buyers are still competing for assets against the private equity titans like never before, finds Lynn Strongin-Dodds
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Asset Class Reports
Investing In Small & Mid-Cap Equities: Taking small-caps global
Brandes Investment Partners has been managing global small caps since 1997. “It’s a big pond with a lot of fish but very few anglers,” as director of investments Luiz Sauerbronn puts it.
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Country Report
Pension in Central & Eastern Europe: Rumours of nationalisation persist in Bulgaria’s second-pillar system
The Bulgarian press was full of speculation last November about the nationalisation of second-pillar assets. When the Hungarian government froze all contributions to the second pillar in 2010 and appropriated most of the assets, pension industries in the region, including Bulgaria, have lived in fear of similar attempts.
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Asset Class Reports
Investing In Small & Mid-Cap Equities: The M&A effect
The M&A theme tends to be big in small-caps: these companies are growing, often via their own acquisitions; and becoming assets coveted by both LBO from below and large-caps from above. Our featured strategies feel its effects as both a blessing and a curse.
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Special ReportSpecial Report, The M&A Cycle: Turning the ratchet
Convertible bonds are not only a good way for fixed-income investors to protect themselves against the ravages of M&A. Martin Steward and Anthony Harrington find that they are a great risk-managed way to exploit the cycle, too
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Country Report
Pensions in Central & Eastern Europe: Unwanted child no longer
Romania’s privatisation programme is providing domestic pension funds with more investment opportunities, finds Carlo Svaluto Moreolo
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Special ReportSpecial Report, The M&A Cycle: Raw Deals
Mergers and takeovers can be traumatic for bondholders. Beverly Chandler finds portfolio managers carefully scrutinising their covenant protections
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Features
Frozen conflict
Since a 1964 report on road pricing in the UK, authored by one RJ Smeed, the idea of charging citizens for use of public highways has been repeatedly raised in Britain.
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Features
A divergent opinion
If there is one big idea running markets around the world at the moment, it’s the ‘great policy divergence’. I’ve articulated the idea more than once: just last month I suggested it would take a “brave, brave soul to bet against the dollar”.
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Features
Markets and pensions
Do financial markets reward countries that have a fully funded and mandatory second-pillar pension system? It is hard to say. But it’s clear they do not penalise countries that dismantle theirs.
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Features
Looking ahead: questions for 2015
Micro-prudential or macro-prudential? What do you mean by long term? Is less sometimes more? Is less sometimes more?
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Features
Heavy hitters throw weight behind collective DC
A pension reform plan recently tabled by nine industry experts in the Netherlands could very well serve as the backbone of the country’s future pension system.
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Features
Focus on pension funds’ social purpose
One of the most important victories during the recent bargaining process over the revised IORP Directive is related to the fundamental nature of pension institutions.
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Features
Supply, demand and the Juncker plan
A plan to meet the EU’s infrastructure needs was announced as 2014 drew to a close, with new European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker launching an investment fund that will be leveraged up to €300bn with institutional capital and guarantees aimed at reducing risk.
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Country Report
When the trend is not your friend
The convergence between asset management and consultancy was a topic for discussion at a conference on fiduciary management organised by the German Federation of Financial Analysts and Asset Management (DVFA) in Frankfurt last November.
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Features
Some Kodak moments
At the recent IPE Conference and Awards event, the audience voted on many questions but two really were extraordinary moments worth capturing.
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Features
Discount-rate agenda
The research effort of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) on discount rates is pretty low-key. Its 2011 agenda consultation revealed moderate support to examine discounting under IFRS. The project is limited in scope, has one full-time staff member, and might not even result in any changes.
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Features
Letter from Brussels: Snail’s pace on new rules
An EU-wide framework for third-pillar personal pension products (PPPs) with an optional set of ‘second regime’ rules is inching forward.
