June 2020

15Jun

Top US pension fund aims to juice returns via $80bn leverage plan

Calpers is to move deeper into private equity and private debt by adopting a bold leverage strategy that the $395bn Californian public sector pension fund believes will help it achieve its ambitious 7 per cent rate of return. In a presentation to the Calpers board, Ben Meng, chief investment officer, said the giant fund would take on additional leverage via borrowings and financial instruments such as equity futures. Leverage could be as high as 20 per cent of the...

June 15, 2020
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15Jun

Pension giant and BNP Paribas AM unite for climate lobbying effort

AP7, BNP Paribas Asset Management and the Church of England Pensions Board have partnered with specialist advisory firm Chronos Sustainability to develop a framework to guide responsible corporate climate change lobbying The Swedish pension fund, French asset manager and English group have teamed up to better assess whether corporate lobbying is aligned with climate change goals, as set out in the Paris Agreement. The project will develop on existing efforts to create a credible and systematic means of measuring...

June 15, 2020
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12Jun

Kenya. Pensions holdings in bonds up Sh92 billion

Pension funds have raised holdings of government debt by Sh92 billion since the beginning of the year, turning to the securities for assured yields at a time equities and property have taken a beating from the pandemic. The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows the funds now account for 29.46 per cent of government domestic debt, which at the end of May stood at Sh3.155 trillion. This translates to holdings worth Sh929.7 billion for the pension funds. At...

June 12, 2020
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10Jun

Denmark’s MP Pension divests 24 oil company holdings

Denmark's flag hangs outside a restaurant in Copenhagen. Danish pension fund MP Pensions plans to divest from 24 oil companies, following similar divestment last year from 10 energy giants. MP Pension, Gentofte, Denmark, has excluded a further 24 oil companies from its portfolio, divesting almost 900 million Danish kroner ($133.9 million) in assets. The 128.4 billion kroner pension fund excluded the oil companies following a 644 million kroner divestment from the 10 biggest oil companies in its portfolio last...

June 10, 2020
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05Jun

The Political Economy of Pension Financialisation

By Anke Hassel, Tobias Wiß The Political Economy of Pension Financialisation addresses – for numerous countries – how and why pension reforms have come to rely more on financial markets, how public policy reacted to financial crises, and regulatory variation. The book demonstrates how the process of pension financialisation reveals that pension policy is not only a social policy that affects retirement income, but also a financial policy that impacts savings rates, corporate finance and the economy. The chapters...

June 5, 2020
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01Jun

UK university pension fund to axe controversial investments

The UK university pension scheme is to end investments in tobacco, coal and controversial weapons manufacturers after bowing to pressure for policy changes from its membership of academics and higher education staff. The £75bn Universities Superannuation Scheme, the UK’s largest private pension fund by assets, will divest its holdings in tobacco companies and exclude future investments in thermal coal producers along with businesses with ties to cluster munitions, white phosphorus and landmines. Simon Pilcher, chief executive of USS Investment...

June 1, 2020
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May 2020
29May

Pension Fund Managers dump Nigerian Treasury Bills

Analysis of the recently released summary of Pension Fund Asset data for the first two months of 2020 by the Pension Commission of Nigeria has shown that pension fund managers are no longer in love with Treasury Bills like they used to be in the past. Time was when fund managers allocated much of their assets to treasury bills, but that seems to be waning as yields on treasury bills head towards subzero. According to the analysis, pension fund...

May 29, 2020
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27May

US. The Federal Employee Retirement Plan Should Add, Not Delete Chinese Stocks

By Ric Edelman Never mix investing with politics, as I wrote in my bestselling book, The Truth About Retirement Plans and IRAs. Sadly, for millions of American public servants, the board that controls their $600 billion retirement savings plan just did. The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board just halted its plans to include Chinese stocks in the Thrift Savings Plan, the 401(k) equivalent for federal employees and members of the military. First, some background. The TSP has five core...

May 27, 2020
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27May

South Africa. Odds stacked against investment industry as Covid-19 hits pension contributions

The investment industry could face one of its toughest years to date in 2020 as people are losing their jobs and cashing out their pensions to survive, while companies are giving those who remain employed options to save less for retirement. One of SA's biggest asset managers, Coronation Fund Managers, said while it is still early to assess the impact of coronavirus-related job losses on the industry, it is safe to expect that less money will be coming in....

May 27, 2020
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25May

South Africa. Eskom must tackle the cost of its coal contracts

By Vuslat Bayoglu The lockdown is imposing additional financial strain on Eskom and necessitates urgent solutions to get the company on a sustainable path beyond Covid-19. It is estimated Eskom will lose between R2.5 billion and R3 billion in revenue per month due to the low electricity demand triggered by the national lockdown. This will compound existing problems: R450 billion debt, maintenance arrears, costly Medupi and Kusile faults, and money lost during state capture. The other perennial problem, perhaps...

May 25, 2020
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