Latest from IPE Magazine – Page 84
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Book ReviewBooks: COVID: The first 10 weeks
Ten Weeks into COVID-19: Psyche, Money and Narratives: An interpretation of the crisis, Pascal Blanqué, Economica, 2021
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InterviewsOn the record: Private markets
Three European pension funds discuss their views and strategies with regard to asset management fees, particularly in private markets
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InterviewsHow we run our money: PMT
Hartwig Liersch (pictured), chief investment officer at Pensioenfonds Metaal & Techniek (PMT), tells Tjibbe Hoekstra how the largest private market pension fund in the Netherlands is looking to strengthen its investment policy to address the climate crisis
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Opinion PiecesNotes on the Nordics: Moves may set up net-zero goal for GPFG
Two events have happened in quick succession that increase the chances of Norway instructing its huge sovereign wealth fund to push for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its investment portfolio.
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Opinion PiecesAgriculture: Time to rethink farming
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released in August, provides grim reading. According to the summary for policymakers: “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.”
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Opinion PiecesLetter from Australia: Public places, private matters
AustralianSuper marked a milestone with its successful takeover in 2019 of education provider, Navitas, for A$2.1bn (€1.3bn).
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FeaturesAccounting: A costly mistake
Maybe you missed it. Or perhaps you were stuck in some interminable queue at an airport. But the United Kingdom’s audit watchdog revealed in August that a disciplinary tribunal had slapped audit giant KPMG with a £13m (€15m) fine, parked it on the naughty step with a severe reprimand, and ordered it to conduct a series of reviews into what went wrong.
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FeaturesPerspective: Time to weigh collective DC
The UK finally legislates for a collective alternative to pure DC. But will employers be interested?
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Opinion PiecesGuest Viewpoint: The climate is ripe for change
If there is to be a successful transition to a net- zero global economy, trillions of dollars need to be invested in renewable energy generation, electricity transmission and storage systems, and energy efficiency. The need is for fresh money. At scale.
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Features
Pensions Insider: A tricky business: compensation for mismanagement
In the fourth of a series of articles aimed at empowering trustees, our insider discusses what happened in a case of fraud
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FeaturesBriefing: Is equity duration risk about to step into the limelight?
In his memoirs, Sir Laurence Olivier tells how, in 1967, he was suddenly taken ill during a National Theatre production of August Strindberg’s Dance of Death. His understudy stepped into the role for just four nights, but in that short time, “.…walked away with the part of Edgar like a cat with a mouse between its teeth”. A star was born. Fifty-five years later, Sir Anthony Hopkins, with a career just as stellar as his one-time mentor, was the oldest-ever recipient of an Oscar for best actor.
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FeaturesBriefing: Private market fees
In today’s low-interest-rate and low-return environment, investing in private markets has become a requirement for virtually every institutional investor. Private markets are where investors can obtain the extra returns they need and can no longer earn from listed assets, thanks to the liquidity premium and higher risk/return profile of non-listed assets.
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FeaturesBriefing: Germany’s Spezialfonds are weathering the crisis well
Institutional investors in Germany continue to invest in funds despite the challenging conditions. In the middle of 2021, the volume of Spezialfonds – Germany’s vehicle for professional investors – on the Universal-Investment platform stood at almost €474bn. This represents an increase of 36% over the past 12 months. According to most observers, it has been one of the most exceptional periods in a long time.
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FeaturesStrategically Speaking: Aviva Investors
Insurance-owned asset managers can be difficult to pigeonhole. Some have forged strong specialisms, often in fixed income, but now also in alternatives like property or niche credit. Others have remained a corporate backwater absorbed by group general-account assets.
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FeaturesFixed income, rates, currencies: Not quite back to normal
As the world struggles to get back to pre-pandemic conditions, with schools and offices open, economic forecasting seems even less predictable than ever. Take August’s US payrolls report, which again confounded most forecasters. Analysts scrambled to explain why the headline job gains were so weak, particularly after the huge (forecast-beating) gains the previous month.
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FeaturesAhead of the curve: The future of quant credit
The past several decades have seen quantitative strategies established as an important feature of global equity markets. In 2019, less than one quarter of the more than $30trn (€25trn) of US equities was held by human-managed funds.
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FeaturesIPE Quest Expectations Indicator - October 2021
The much-feared post-summer holiday effect on COVID-19 contaminations did not materialise. The current wave started earlier and statistics are already trending down in the US, EU, UK and Japan, although still at a high level. Full vaccinations are over 60% in the EU and UK, with Japan catching up fast. Emerging markets are still significantly behind in tackling the pandemic.
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Special ReportETFs Guide 2021: A story of scale, scope and sophistication
In tandem with continued strong inflows, which you will see illustrated in granular detail in the data supplied by research and consultancy firm ETFGI at the back of this year’s ETF Guide, the scope of ETFs’ role is broadening with the adoption of what one asset manager describes as a ‘whole portfolio’ approach.
