All articles by Liam Kennedy – Page 17
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News
Dual investment objective a 'big challenge' for Ireland's reformed NPRF
CIO says successfor fund will have ‘no hope’ of attracting co-investment without independent governance
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Features
The Canada factor
If only our pension funds could be more Canadian – which is to say, large, well-governed institutions that are prominent and successful investors. Canada has these in spades, counting among its ranks four of the top 20 biggest global real estate investors and also four of the top 20 infrastructure investors respectively.
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Features
Double bottom line
Eugene O’Callaghan, investment director of the National Pensions Reserve Fund, tells Liam Kennedy about the business plan for the new Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and progress so far in transitioning the portfolio into one with a dual mandate for returns and economic impact
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Features
Trust me, I manage money
No-one doubts that trust, ethics and integrity are central to pension and investment management.
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InterviewsDrawing a virtuous circle
A number of prominent bank-owned asset managers have been put up for sale at various times since 2009 – a process that has not always been straightforward for the banks or the asset managers. Pioneer Investments’ proposed sale by its parent Unicredit was finally called off in April 2011, which allowed it to focus on a new set of strategic priorities.
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Features
Variable solutions
Europe is moving slowly and deliberately away from defined benefit pensions to approaches that, if well considered, might prove a sustainable model for workplace retirement provision.
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Interviews
Low fashion, high durability
As Thornburg Investment Management’s fourth employee, Brian McMahon arrived in Santa Fe in 1984 around the same time as the firm acquired a second-hand fax machine from the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Walter Mondale.
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Features
Time to get together?
In an ideal world, pension fund mergers create advantageous economies of investment and administration scale that benefit members, pensioners and sponsors long term. In the real world, pension funds are complicated to merge, not least because social partners often demand that everyone has a seat around the board table.
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Features
Politics and sovereign wealth
Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global is now the third-largest institutional investor in the world, after Japan’s Government Pension Fund and China’s SAFE
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Interviews
M&G Fixed Income: Shining a light in the cracks
IPE editor Liam Kennedy sits down with M&G chief executive Simon Pilcher
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Features
Actuaries in business
Liam Kennedy asked Jonathan Punter and Stuart Southall about their careers as actuaries, entrepreneurs and dealmakers in the world of UK pensions
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IP Asia
Risk management challenges for pension funds
Complexity in regulation, heightened demand for efficient liability management and market volatility have created demand for a different type of relationship between asset managers and pension funds, writes Liam Kennedy.
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Features
Buyout now while stocks last
Pension longevity transfer, whether through full insurance buyouts, bulk annuities or longevity swaps, is still largely a UK business.
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Special Report
Top 1000 Pension Funds: The thrifty thousands
Roger Urwin, global head of investment content at Towers Watson, noted earlier this year that the world’s leading investors are upping their internal resources and adopting the organisational characteristics of asset managers. Urwin’s focus was on what he calls the ‘Thrifty Fifty’ largest institutional asset pools. Our reference to ‘Thrifty Thousands’ on the cover of this year’s Top 1000 supplement owes a debt to Urwin’s coinage.
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Special Report
Investment Solutions: Very real problems
Complexity in regulation, heightened demand for efficient liability management, market volatility and the sheer breadth of investment opportunities have created demand for a different type of relationship between asset managers and pension funds, writes Liam Kennedy. How are they meeting this demand? And, with a new generation of ‘modular’ or ...
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Features
Smarter outsourcing
The term ‘outsourcing’ first came to light in 1979, and gained popularity in business by the 1990s as companies sought supply-chain efficiency and to concentrate on their core activity. The notion also gained currency in pension fund management.
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Features
Unsubtle financial repression
Dutch politicians are acutely aware of the size and importance of pension funds and want pension assets to be channelled back into the domestic economy.
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Features
Transition management for China
European politicians like to meet with Jin Liqun, chairman of the board of supervisors of China Investment Corporation. As a man with more than $400bn (€309.2bn) in assets for investment outside China, they have been actively courting his fund’s capital.
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Special Report
Top 400 Asset Managers: Global assets back on the rise
Total AUM of top 400 managers = €39.2trn (2012 = €36.3trn; 2011 = €36.2trn). Increase in AUM of 8% over 2012. BlackRock is the largest manager (€2.9trn) and accounts for 7.4% of overall assets. Top 100 managers account for 83.7% of the assets (€32.8trn).
