All articles by Robert Melia Watson – Page 22
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Features
Puzzling over the data
There’s still caution in the markets, despite positive economic data being circulated at the moment. “We’re basically waiting to see what direction this year is going to take,” says Catherine Reilly, an economist at Conventum Securities in Helsinki. She says that whilst she believes the markets have bottomed out, investors ...
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News
Swiss fund to select hedging or overlay manager
SWITZERLAND – The SFr 4.6bn (€3.1bn) Bernische Lehrerversicherungskasse (BLVK), pension and insurance fund for teachers employed by the Swiss canton of Berne, is considering modifying its asset allocation strategy to include either currency risk hedging or currency overlay components in order to control and reduce risk.
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News
Portuguese exchange joins Euronext
PORTUGAL/EUROPE – Euronext, the pan-European stock exchange that resulted from the merger of the Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris exchanges two years ago, has added the Portuguese stock exchange, Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto (BVLP) to its roster.
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News
PMI picks MLIM and Vanguard for €1bn mandates
NETHERLANDS – The €12.5bn Dutch metal and electronic industries’ pension fund, PMI-SVM has awarded two mandates totalling €1bn to Merrill Lynch and Vanguard.
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News
Robeco launches SRI fund
NETHERLANDS – Rotterdam based financial services group, Robeco, has launched its second socially responsible investment (SRI) fund, the Robeco MilieuTechnologie, which will invest in companies worldwide that are active in preserving and improving the environment, especially in the areas of sustainable energy, water management and waste recycling.
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S&P and Crédit Lyonnais launch ETFs
FRANCE/EUROPE – Crédit Lyonnais Asset Management (CLAM) and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) have launched two new exchange traded funds (ETFs), the SPDR Europe 350 and the SPDR Euro on NextTrack, the ETF platform at Euronext in Paris.
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News
Funding arrangement changes could hurt pensioners
UK – A ‘pensions accident’ is waiting to occur in the UK, if more defined benefit (DB) schemes become underfunded, leading to an increased risk of pension funds being unable to pay their pensions in full, warns Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM).
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News
Swiss funds likely to change asset allocation
SWITZERLAND – The continued downward trend in global equity markets could yet have far-reaching consequences for the asset allocation strategy of many Swiss pension funds, since their portfolios traditionally have large equity components, and the median annualised performance target for many of them has fallen below the government’s 4% minimum, ...
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News
Northern Trust adds AllianceBernstein to UK fund
UK – Northern Trust Global Investments has added AllianceBernstein to the roster of managers overseeing the £270m (€442.5m) UK equity fund of its multi-manager pooled funds.
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German insurer Signal Iduna in merger talks
GERMANY – German insurance company, Signal Iduna (SI), which has some €4bn in annual premium income, has confirmed that it is talking to other medium sized insurance companies about strategic partnerships or mergers.
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News
HSBC's GIS wins £5bn trade cost analysis mandate
UK – Global Investor Services (GIS), the global custody division of HSBC, has won its first contract for its newly-launched transaction cost measurement service (TCMS) from Wolverhampton City Council, the administrator for the £5bn (€8.2bn) West Midlands pension fund.
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News
Man IP launches capital guaranteed products
UK/SWITZERLAND – Man Investment Products (MIP), the Switzerland based alternative investment management arm of Man Group, has launched the Man AP Strategic Series I, a capital guaranteed investment product available in both US dollar and euro denominated bonds.
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News
Unilever launches new fund for French employees
FRANCE – Anglo-Dutch consumer goods company, Unilever, has established a new épargne salariale type retirement provision vehicle for its French employees, a voluntary defined contribution model that will be split between six investment funds to be managed by BNP Paribas.
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News
SSgA wins e1.5bn mandate from Netherlands' PMI
NETHERLANDS/US – The Dutch metal and electronic industries’ pension fund, PMI-SVM has appointed State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) to manage two equity mandates with a combined value of €1.5bn.
