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Dutch reform to tread lightly on investment mix

When the Netherlands pension reforms were announced in 2011, many experts argued they were likely to substantially increase the risk appetites at the funds guarding the country’s $1-trillion pension assets. Recent developments to the reform proposals make the overall impact far from clear, however, suggesting there will be no bonanza for Dutch investment managers. The […]
Dan BillinghamNovember 23, 2012
Investor Profile

Swiss powerhouse: the Sulzer pension fund

Sulzer is a Swiss manufacturer with a proud past. From pioneering the diesel engine to making the specialist pumps that drive power production around the world, it has been around for 178 years. Perhaps leveraging off such a rich history, the company’s pension scheme is very much looking into the future thanks to solid returns […]
Dan BillinghamNovember 16, 2012
Uncategorised posts

Brussels ‘cooking up real estate shock’

The European Union is threatening to drive pension funds out of real estate investments, experts warn. That could be one of the undesirable results of plans to put pension funds under new risk regulations akin to the Solvency II requirements for the continent’s insurers. What most concerns John Forbes, a PriceWaterhouseCoopers real estate expert, is […]
Dan BillinghamNovember 2, 2012
Investor Profile

Defined benefit thrives at Migros

Success stories at pension funds are a real rarity in crisis-ravaged Europe, with deficits hampering countless major international firms. The CHF16.9-billion ($18.1-billion) pension fund of Swiss supermarket cooperative, Migros, is firmly in the blessed minority of funds enjoying rude health. Migros Pensionskasse was even able to boost its surplus to $1.3 billion in 2011 while […]
Dan BillinghamOctober 24, 2012
Investor Profile

Irish fund “turned on its head”

Institutional investors across the planet are squaring up to changed realities in the wake of the financial crisis. It is difficult though to think of any that has found its operating environment transformed as fundamentally as Ireland’s National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF). “Being turned on its head is a fairly accurate way to describe the […]
Dan BillinghamSeptember 28, 2012
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