All Special Report articles – Page 118
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Special Report
Going for engagement
By the end of the first quarter of next year ABN Amro will have rolled out its SRI offering to France, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. The offering is based on the approach adopted by the bank’s Swedish subsidiary Banco Fonder, the main centre of ABN Amro’s SRI activity ...
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Special Report
Double jeopardy
The emerging market spells a quantum leap in investment risk for most pension funds which now view them as an essential alpha generator as traditional asset classes have become both more unpredictable and disappointing in terms of their returns. But what of the newly coined ‘emerging emerging market?’ A class ...
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Special Report
Crying need for governance
Most industry participants agree that education has to be the foremost concern. “A lot of boards until recently have been made up of gifted amateurs rather than professionals. There is an expectation that this will change,” says Elizabeth Renshaw-Ames, a worldwide partner at Mercer Investment Consulting. She points out that ...
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Special Report
A question of best practice
For trustees and board members of pension funds in Europe, life has never been harder. A decade ago, things looked rosy. Pension funds were in surplus, and funding levels were not a concern. Pension schemes were posting strong double digit returns, allowing contribution holidays, and spending almost next to no ...
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Special Report
Structured approaches
A two-tiered internal governance structure is being proposed in the Netherlands, the country that is leading on governance in Europe, and where the issue has been under debate for the last few years. Currently, according to the OECD, pension funds are incorporated legal entities separate from the sponsor, and have ...
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Special Report
Missing the ESG sea-change
Fiduciary responsibility has been reinvented to include environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations – this was the clear message to pension funds and their trustees, as well as the consultants and asset managers who work with them that emerged from the 2005 United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) ...
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Special Report
Vive la différence?
One of the biggest challenges of an investor seeking to engage on matters of corporate governance is understanding and then working with the multiplicity of different corporate structures and share-owning cultures that exist around the world. Hermes Pensions Management, 100% owned by the BT Pension Fund, is just such an ...
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Special Report
Seeing the wood
The principle of keeping things simple may well turn out to be critical in gaining widespread acceptance of environmental reporting requirements. Simon Thomas is chief executive at Trucost, a research consultancy which specialises in measuring the impact companies have on the environment. He refers to a recent report compiled by ...
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Special Report
Transparent ownership
In Hermes’ view good management and good governance are synonymous. It is difficult to imagine a well managed company that has poor governance. All the evidence is that well governed companies do better and are more highly valued by the market. Furthermore, the improvement and the market’s appreciation of that ...
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Special Report
Why we need whistleblowers
Keith Ambachtsheer, a pensions guru on both sides of the Atlantic, has a different slant on what can make defined benefit schemes sustainable long term. Speaking recently in the US to a conference of teacher retirement plans, he told delegates: “You need a whistleblower.” Toronto-based Ambachtsheer, who acts as a ...
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Special Report
Listening to the investors
Corporate governance has been described as the “architecture of accountability”. How satisfied are primary investors with the accountability of real estate managers and their funds? IPE asked several major investors for their views on the subject. Our questions – which were supplied by Jonathan Fenton at law firm DLA ...
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Special Report
Integrating 'extra financial' elements into portfo
Pioneer in Europe in the area of sustainable and responsible investment (SRI), Dexia Asset Management intends to best fulfil the demands of investors who are increasingly sensitive to the challenges of sustainable development. In this respect, the dedicated SRI team was recently strengthened significantly. Over the past 10 years, ...
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Special Report
Inclusion boosts engagement
In September independent Stockholm-based SRI analysis house GES Investment Services launched a web-based extension to its active engagement service that will enable its institutional investor clients to become more involved in the engagement process. “There is a need for an engagement/discussion forum for clients,” says GES marketing director Henrik Af ...
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Special Report
Too bitter a pill to swallow
Major European pension institutions such as ABP, USS and Hermes are among a group of institutional investors that have launched a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp over a poison pill arrangement. Investors participating include Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme and Hermes Investment Management. The group seeks ...
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Special Report
Price of taking responsibility
Environmental considerations are set to play an increasingly significant role in investment policy following two major new developments earlier this year. The Kyoto Protocol became a legally binding treaty in February. It aims to slow down global warming by demanding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2% ...
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Special Report
Model for governance?
IPE asked three pension funds in three countries - in Austria, the Netherlands and Finland - the same question: ‘Is there or should there be a basic European template that could be adopted for pension fund governance or should it be left to national practice?’ Here are their answers: ...
