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Investor Profile

UMR: growth from government bonds?

“We have to move faster than our competitors,” says the chief executive of French retirement fund Union Mutualiste Retraite, Charles Vaquier. It is a phrase that you can hear uttered by business leaders at all sectors and levels, but one that institutional investors rarely emphasise. In chatting about its investment strategy, it soon becomes apparent […]
Dan BillinghamJanuary 30, 2013
Uncategorised posts

European investors stay on the offensive

2012 was a year of battles for European pension funds. An ongoing war was waged against a severe regulatory challenge from the European Commission in the shape of Solvency II-style legislation. Aside from the uncertain struggle of that campaign, major European investors gained plenty of credit from standing up to corporate boards in the “shareholder […]
Dan BillinghamJanuary 23, 2013
Uncategorised posts

Swiss investors on the hunt for alternatives

A company pension fund might not be the first place you would think of applying for a mortgage. According to Matthias Weber, a partner at Zurich consultancy ifund services, the issuance of mortgages by investors is likely to deepen as Swiss pension funds continue on their quest to find good alternative assets. Weber has just […]
Dan BillinghamJanuary 18, 2013
Investor Profile

Sustainability sets solid base at Germany’s MetallRente

Germany’s MetallRente has made quick progress since its foundation by trade unions in 2001. It has grown into Germany’s biggest multi-employer pension provider, boasting €3 billion ($3.87 billion) in assets, and counts a mammoth 21,000 companies as customers, from within the metal industry it was set up to serve and beyond. In the past two […]
Dan BillinghamDecember 12, 2012
Investor Profile

Modern portfolio theory drives Volkswagen Stiftung

The €2.3-billion ($3-billion) assets at the Volkswagen charitable foundation in Germany are powered by portfolio theory and diversification. The foundation is so keen on modern portfolio theory that its founder Harry Markowitz gets a mention in its annual report. Chief investment officer Dieter Lehmann says he is sure “that his correlation analysis isn’t correct at […]
Dan BillinghamDecember 7, 2012
Investor Profile

Innovation brings results at Austria’s APK

Austria is a country with a strong tradition of innovation. That can be sensed through its nineteenth century industrial emergence to Gustav Klimt’s secessionist art movement in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Vienna and the Austrian school of economics that later spawned monetarist pioneer, Friedrich Hayek. The APK pension fund is these days adding to the list of those […]
Dan BillinghamNovember 30, 2012
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