The Dutch Shell Pension Fund booked a total return of 16.8% in 2006, increasing its entire assets to €18.3bn. The scheme outperformed its benchmark by 3.3%. The best performing asset class was private equity, now grown to 5% of assets, which returned almost 39%. The spokesman said Shell is aware of recent scrutiny of private equity investments, but added that Shell has a policy to look very carefully in which private equity and hedge funds it invests.
International
Gore urges pension funds to act on the environment
The former US vice-president Al Gore hit out at the short-termist attitude of corporate executives and fund managers, urging the British pension fund industry to use its muscle to force companies to take a more responsible approach to environmental issues.
Link to Independent Online Edition
European private equity firms raise a record 90 bln eur
Fundraising at European private equity firms grew by 25 pct to a record 90 bln eur last year as pension funds and funds of funds continued to pile into the asset class, according to a new study. According to the data compiled by Thomson Financial and PricewaterhouseCoopers, one year returns for all private equity was at 21.3 pct, with an annualised return net of fees at 10.3 pct.
Merrill adjusts pension fee policy
Facing pressure from rivals and regulators, Merrill Lynch & Co.’s pension-consulting arm is changing the way it handles some of its fees. As part of the change, Merrill has also been refunding money to some of its pension-fund clients. Those refunds have ranged from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars and totaled about $2 million, according to people with knowledge of the payments. At issue: In some cases, Merrill both provides advice to pension funds about what money managers the fund should use and collects brokerage fees from those money managers, raising the prospect of a conflict of interest.
UK: Strategy of HSBC pension funds attacked
HSBC was accused of running its pension funds in a way that could be as damaging to shareholders as its disastrous foray into US sub-prime mortgages. A shift out of shares into bonds last year and a more conservative assumption about staff life expectancy may cost HSBC shareholders up to £775 million, it was claimed. HSBC missed out on booming equity markets last year as its pension funds dumped shares in favour of bonds and infrastructure assets. The proportion of shares in the core UK pension fund was reduced from 47 per cent at the start of the year to 24.5 per cent by its end. HSBC plans to cut it still further to 12.5 per cent.
La Belgique va attirer des fonds de pension pan-européens
Dans le cadre des «Rencontres du Château de Pregny», la Compagnie Benjamin de Rothschild a invité, hier à Genève le premier ministre de la Belgique, Guy Verhofstadt. Son gouvernement veut faire de Bruxelles une place privilégie pour la gestion des fonds de pension. Le premier ministre belge est convaincu que, dans cette industrie, «il y a de la place pour tout le monde». Mais avec des sociétés multinationales qui s’installent volontiers à Bruxelles et souhaitent, comme relevé plus haut, une proximité géographique avec leur département en charge des fonds de pension, la capitale belge est bien placée pour occuper un solide créneau dans ce domaine.
Li: Strafverfahren gegen Furrer wegen Sifo eingestellt
Die Liechtensteiner Justiz hat das Strafverfahren gegen Werner Furrer, einen ehemaligen Angestellten der Finanzmarktaufsicht, zwei Wochen nach der Anhörung eingestellt. Ermittelt wurde wegen Herabwürdigung des Staats und seiner Symbole. Furrer hatte sich in einem Brief an Schweizer Parlamentarier gegen den Anschluss der liechtensteinischen VE an den Schweizer Sicherheitsfonds ausgesprochen. Furrer ist nun seinerseits aktiv geworden. Er hat eine Strafanzeige gegen die liechtensteinische Finanzmarktaufsicht wegen Missbrauchs der Amtsgewalt eingereicht. Aus früheren Gerichtsakten sei ersichtlich, dass diese Aufsicht in gewissen Belangen auf ungehörige Weise von einigen zu beaufsichtigenden Unternehmen beeinflusst werde, so Furrer.
UK: Pension payouts fall 78% in 10 years
The figures of a report by Watson Wyatt show that a 60-year-old who retired in January 1997 after paying £200 a month into a personal pension for 20 years received a typical annuity of a little over £20,500 a year. Yet a 60-year-old man who retired in January of this year after making identical contributions would receive only £4,613 a year, 78% less.
State official backs California giants governance push
The $230bn (€177bn) California Public Employees› Retirement System and the $158bn California State Teachers› Retirement System have been pressing computer maker Hewlett Packard to grant them «proxy access» so that they have the right to put forward candidates for selection to the board.
Link to People Moves from Financial News Online US
UK – New lease of life for final salary pensions
Christine Farnish, then chief excecutive of the National Association of Pension Funds, did not mince her words. Final salary schemes, she declared, were toast – «history, frankly» – and all would be closed in five years. But that brutal assessment was delivered in the summer of 2005. Last week, her successor, Joanne Segars, struck a very different note, suggesting that, with a string of caveats, the third of schemes that remain open to new employees might now survive.
Link to FT.com / World / UK – New lease of life for final salary pensions
U.K. Pension Deficits Rise $21.5 Billion After Slump
U.K. companies are facing increased deficits in their pension funds after yesterday’s fall in stock markets, with bigger losses than those on the day of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to Aon Corp.
Watson Wyatt: What’s on the Horizon for Phase Two of Postretirement Benefit Accounting Reform?
On September 29, 2006, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) 158, which concluded the first phase of the FASB’s accounting reforms for pensions and other postretirement benefits. Phase One, sometimes called the “quick fix,” moved market-based measures of funded status from the footnotes of financial statements to the balance sheet. Many important issues were left for Phase Two to resolve, and its ramifications are likely to be bigger than those of Phase One.
Link to Watson Wyatt – Insider
Norway Pension Fund Mulls Real Estate, Buyout Funds
Norway’s $287 billion global pension fund, Europe’s largest retirement savings plan, may invest as much as 15 percent of its assets in property and leveraged buyout funds to boost returns.
UK: "Mugging the over-75s"
An awful scheme is being hatched in the Treasury to punish anyone who has had the temerity to live to 75. Given life expectancies, that may be you one day – or even now – so take heed. It does not get worse than this – that some personal pension funds could end up being taxed at 170% on death. The Soviet Union never aspired to such malefactions.
Link to Comment is free: Mugging the over-75s
Institutionelle Investoren erhöhen Anteil an Private Equity
In der Adveq-Studie, die in Zusammenarbeit mit der Fachhochschule Wiesbaden entstand, wurden 263 institutionelle Anleger in Deutschland hinsichtlich ihres Investitionsverhaltens untersucht. Die Hälfte der befragten Institutionen gab an, dass Private Equity fester Bestandteil des Portfolios ist. Im internationalen Vergleich sind kontinentaleuropäische Versicherungen und Pensionskassen eher zurückhaltend, doch attraktive historische Renditen und strategische und geographische Allokationsüberlegungen fördern die Anlageklasse Private Equity auch bei diesen Institutionen. Vergleichbare Investoren wie die amerikanischen Universitäts-Stiftungen Yale, Harvard oder Stanford weisen Private Equity Anteile von 8 – 15 Prozent aus. In Zukunft wollen institutionelle Investoren in Europa ihren Anteil an Private Equity weiter erhöhen. Als wichtigste Gründe gaben die Institutionen die attraktiven historischen Renditen in dieser Anlageklasse in den letzten Jahren und die Streuung des Risikos an.