The Second Swedish National Pension Fund (AP2) will invest $250 million in a joint venture with a US pension fund and financial services provider to buy farmland in the United States, Brazil and Australia.
Californian funds told to invest in their own backyard
California Treasurer Bill Lockyer (pictured) sent his deputy Steve Coony to a recent CalPERS board meeting to tell the pension fund they needed to do more to invest in their own backyard. Coony shares his views with conexust1f.flywheelstaging.com on how public pension funds can play a greater role in boosting California’s ailing economy.
De-risking is de rigueur, survey finds
Investors are looking to continue to scale-back their exposure to US equities, increase their allocation to fixed-interest assets and strongly focus on the liability side of their balance sheets, a recent survey of funds in the US and Europe found.
Bernanke throws the dice as funds look on bemused
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke’s speech at the International Monetary Conference this week reveals the delicate balance between the (stagnant) state of the US economy and the enormous growth of the emerging market economies.
Avoiding misinterpretation in calculating performance-based fees
Performance-based fee compensation relies on performance fee models that require that specific parameters be clearly stipulated in the investment management agreeement. This case study is one example of the misinterpretation that can occur when the fee model’s parameters are not specifically defined.
Commodities demand a fundamentally active approach
Investing in commodities via passive strategies presents some unique challenges due in part to the structure of futures contracts. GE Asset Management which has been managing commodities for the GE pension fund for five years, and opened that expertise to external clients last year, believes a better approach is active management using fundamentals.
