January 2018

23Jan

Canadian pension fund buying USD-144m stake in India’s ReNew Power

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is paying USD 144 million (EUR 118m) for a minority stake in Indian renewables developer and operator ReNew Power Ventures Pvt Ltd The two parties said in a joint statement today that the Toronto-based investment management organisation is acquiring a 6.3% stake in ReNew Power from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The lender made its own equity investment in ReNew Power in July 2014. ReNew Power is an independent power producer (IPP) that develops wind,...

January 23, 2018
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22Jan

British PM May says will stop companies abusing pension schemes

British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would clamp down on bosses who try to “line their own pockets” while not protecting workers’ pensions, after the collapse of outsourcer Carillion with a 900-million-pound hole in its pension scheme. Writing in Sunday’s Observer newspaper, the Prime Minister said private companies could help deliver better public services, but the system needed to be rebalanced in favor of ordinary working people. “In the spring, we will set out tough new rules for executives who...

January 22, 2018
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22Jan

UK. Universities face disruption as union calls strike over pensions row

Universities across the UK are to face major disruption after workers voted to go on strike in a row over pensions. Of the 58% of University and College Union members who voted, 88% were in favour of strike action, with 93% approving of some other form of industrial action as talks with Universities UK over changes to the existing pensions scheme failed to deliver a solution. Universities UK (UUK) - the representative organisation for the country's universities - wants to change...

January 22, 2018
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19Jan

Zambia. Investment of Pension Funds: Part 1

It is widely recognised that a pension scheme represents a long-term contract between the employer as sponsor and the members. In this arrangement, employees give up part of the current salary through pension contributions in exchange for future retirement benefits. It is, therefore important that pension funds are properly invested in order to get good returns for the pension scheme members. To achieve this, we need an enabling environment and appropriate institutions to ‘grow’ pension funds. Government has established the environment...

January 19, 2018
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19Jan

IMF hails pension reform in Ukraine, notes some shortcomings

IMF Communications Director Gerry Rice said this at a briefing in Washington on Thursday, January 18, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "Ukraine recently adopted the pension law," he said, adding that it introduces some important provisions to modernize the pension system in Ukraine. At the same time, he said, pension reform "has some shortcomings that undermine incentives for people to work longer and contribute to the [pension] system." In this regard, Rice said that such changes do not "fully ensure a fair and...

January 19, 2018
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18Jan

Fidelity International eyes mutual, pension fund business in China

Fidelity International, which launched three private funds in China in the past eight months, said on Thursday it would explore opportunities in the Chinese mutual and pension fund market. Fidelity was the first global asset manager to be awarded China’s private fund management licence a year ago, as the country gradually opens up its $2.2 trillion (1.59 trillion pounds) fund industry to global asset managers. Other managers have followed suit. Fidelity said it aimed to launch a larger variety of funds...

January 18, 2018
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18Jan

Is China going down the same path as Japan with its ageing population?

China’s demographic picture is starting to look a lot like Japan’s, with new births in decline, a shrinking workforce and an ageing population, according to the latest official data. While China’s headline growth accelerated to 6.9 per cent in 2017 from 6.7 per cent in 2016, its demographic statistics are less positive. Despite the nationwide introduction of a two-child policy in 2015, the number of new births fell to 17.23 million last year, from 17.86 million in 2016, the National Bureau...

January 18, 2018
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18Jan

Norges Bank excludes Evergreen from pension fund over scrapping practices

Norway’s central bank has excluded Evergreen Marine from one of its two sovereign wealth funds, citing the Taiwanese company’s vessel scrapping practices as causing “serious human rights violations and severe environmental damage”. The fund’s Council on Ethics claimed that “Evergreen Marine has for several years disposed of decommissioned vessels by sending them to be broken up for scrap on the beaches of Bangladesh and Pakistan, a practice known as beaching, where working conditions are extremely poor”. “There are no indications that...

January 18, 2018
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18Jan

Those Corporate Pensions Weren’t Always So Great

Spend a little time with the U.S. District Court case of Millsap v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., and it may leave you aghast at the heartlessness and mendacity of the people who ran the aircraft manufacturer (since acquired by Boeing Co.) in the 1990s. That certainly seems to have been the effect on Judge Sven Erik Holmes, who in his 2001 ruling in favor of James R. Millsap and the other workers who lost their jobs when McDonnell Douglas shut...

January 18, 2018
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