A survey of more than 85 senior level financial executives at US-based companies reveals few are taking steps to cut costs and improve governance but are reacting to the economic crisis by decreasing equities and eliminating defined contribution investment options. The report by Watson Wyatt shows that two thirds of companies have made changes, or are planning to make changes to their defined benefit asset allocations, while more than half have already made changes, or plan to make changes, to the investment lineups of their defined contribution plans.
The £21.7 billion ($35 billion) Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is facing the prospect of having to initiate a recovery plan after a 25 per cent fall in its assets in the financial year ending March 2009 caused its funded status to drop by almost 30 per cent.
HOSTPLUS, the A$7 billion ($6 billion) Australian superannuation fund, is known in its home market for seeding promising emerging managers. Now, the fund aims to roll out its incubation program globally. CIO Sam Sicilia told Simon Mumme about the fund’s reasons for backing boutiques, and its hunt for co-investment opportunities in frontier markets.
The investment department of the $56 billion State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRSOH) will defer
the $3.39 million earned in performance-based incentive pay to future fiscal years conditional on certain hurdles, and a compensation study for investment associates will be completed by November.
Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) piled a record $20 billion into foreign direct investment (FDI) transactions last year, continuing the big cross-border forays they began in 2005.
Listed infrastructure drew attention last year for all the wrong reasons. Kristen Paech talks to Bruce Eidelson, San Diego-based director, real estate securities at Russell Investments, about the viability of the asset class post-crisis, and why privatisation in the US could boost US pension allocations.