Latest Special Reports – Page 123
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Special Report
Ethix in AP7 Fund deal
Swedish ethical consulting firm, Ethix, says it is about to sign a deal that will see AP7 and a number of other institutions take an approximately 50% stake in the firm. Ethix was formed this year after a number of staff left SRI consulting firm CaringCompany –Etikanalytikerna, which re-cently changed ...
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Special Report
Name change for CaringCompany
Nordic socially responsible investment consulting firm CaringCompany has changed its named to GES Investment Services. The company says the aim of the rebranding exercise was to strengthen the profile of the company for an international expansion effort. Managing director Magnus Furugård says the name change would give the firm one ...
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Special Report
New alpha sources
Three years of bear markets and growing pension deficits have significantly accelerated and intensified the institutional search for out-performance. It is somewhat perplexing, therefore, that one potentially robust – and growing – source of alpha has scarcely been examined – at least not in a disciplined, sophisticated, and widespread way. ...
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Special Report
The seven habits of highly effective pension funds
It seems like Steven Covey’s personal improvement bible “The 7 habits of highly effective people” has been on best-selling book lists forever. What if we changed the ‘people’ word in the book title to ‘pension funds’? What would become of Covey’s effective people habits like ‘be proactive’, ‘begin with the ...
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Special Report
Accounting rules to hit corporates
It was supposed to be a step forward more transparency in pension fund accounting. Still it is raising more quarrels about what transparency really means and what is the right balance between disclosure to investors and a company’s need to keep costs under control. The new rules issued by the ...
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Special Report
The future for responsible investment
It has been a fascinating autumn for those that believe in responsible investment. There have been so many developments, there has hardly been time to catch your breath. Granada, and BSkyB are just two examples of UK companies whose governance has been heavily questioned and indeed influenced. In the Netherlands ...
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Special Report
An SRI beast
Always a watcher of the latest trends, this Dark Beast is now considering establishing the Bête Noire SRI Fund, to fill a unique market niche. Being a heavy smoker, excluding tobacco companies doesn’t seem that attractive to this Beast. In fact smokers save money for the health service by shortening ...
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Special Report
From periphery to mainstream
Dutch superfund ABP has been actively involved in both socially responsible investment (SRI) and corporate governance since the mid-1990s. Since then, ABP has undertaken a whole array of national and international activities to include SRI and corporate governance in its mainstream investment processes. ABP is one of the leaders in ...
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Special Report
Vigilante armed with a torch
Pension funds in the UK are battling to deal with a public loss of confidence in them. Not only are asset values dwindling for the third year in a row, but high profile cases of excessive pay for top executives at some of the country’s biggest corporations has led to ...
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Special Report
Guiding light of shareholder value
When you think of Sweden, you think ‘green’ – environmentally friendly, clean and responsible. The Swedish pension fund world is no exception. Consider AP7’s high profile stock-screening policy based on international corporate social responsibility (CSR) guidelines. At the root, however, the debate between CSR, shareholder value and the role of ...
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Special Report
First UK SRI index
There are some perhaps unexpected names – including oil, chemicals and mining companies – topping the first UK corporate social responsibility index launched in March. Among the top ranking companies in the new index are Shell International, BP, Dow Chemical and Rio Tinto. They are alongside names such as retailers ...
