PME, the €18.8 billion (US$25.6 billion) industry-wide pension fund for the mechanical and electrical engineering sector in the Netherlands, has seen its funding ratio fall 45 per cent over the last year. Kristen Paech talks to the fund about its recovery plan, including the decision not to rebalance equities, and the benefits of using a fiduciary manager.
Institutional investors in the US, including the largest pension fund in the country, CalPERS, have applauded the introduction of the Shareholder Bill of Rights which includes reform to allow long-term investors to nominate their own director candidates on the management proxy card.
In this month’s Financial Analysts Journal, Tyler Cowen professor of economics at George Mason University, Virginia makes sense of the current financial crisis by drawing on some of Fischer Black’s ideas.
The $27 billion Arizona State Retirement System has extended its asset allocation ranges and postponed the approval of new commitments to private market investments until the end of June, unless an overriding investment opportunity exception exists.
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A 10 per cent increase in internal investment management results in a 4.2 basis points increase in net value added to a pension fund’s bottom line, according to analysis of the CEM Benchmarking database, which has data on more than 380 global pension funds from 1991 to 2007.
As global markets nosedived and its initial investments soured, the China Investment Corporation (CIC) took the opportunity to reorganise its investment operations and focus on less risky investments at home and in Asia. Simon Mumme reports.