February 2020

11Feb

Zimbabwe pension funds to invest offshore

During an inaugural insurance and pensions industry breakfast meeting yesterday, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube said Parliament would receive the Pensions and Provident Fund Bill, the Insurance Act and the amendments of the Insurance Commission Act soon. "In the first half of the year, all three Bills will come before Parliament . . . It is going to be contained in one of the Bills (Pensions and Provident) that eventually what we are saying is that for now we...

February 11, 2020
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10Feb

Asian pension markets post nearly 12% jump in assets under management

Asia-Pacific’s seven top pension markets – Japan, Australia, South Korea, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and India – saw their assets under management climb by 11.6 per cent in 2019, according to Thinking Ahead Institute’s Global Pension Assets Study released Monday. Also Read Asia Hedge Funds Brace for Lean Times as Investors Stay Away Japan is the largest of Asia’s pension markets, followed by Australia, with both countries in the top seven pension markets globally, the study said. “Asia Pacific...

February 10, 2020
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07Feb

Coronavirus fallout hits pensions and ISAs as investors urged not to flinch

The first day back to work after a long holiday is always a bit grating. But for those logging in at the Chinese stock market for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, all bets were off. Read also Super funds push for lower pension age for Indigenous Australians The rest of the world’s markets have been riding the waves of coronavirus-induced volatility for weeks now as the infection spreads, while the epicenter remained economically silent. Read also Pension inequality:...

February 7, 2020
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07Feb

World’s Largest Pension Fund Gains on Stocks, Foreign Debt

The world’s biggest pension fund posted a gain for a fourth consecutive quarter, with foreign stocks providing the best return among assets amid a thaw in trade tensions between the U.S. and China. Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund returned 4.6%, or 7.4 trillion yen ($67 billion), in the quarter ended Dec. 31, with assets totaling 168.9 trillion yen, it said Friday in Tokyo. Foreign stocks were the fund’s best performing investment, gaining 9.7%, while domestic equities added 8.6%. The...

February 7, 2020
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07Feb

CDPQ Goes Local for Private Credit in India

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which manages funds primarily for Canadian public and parapublic pension and insurance plans, has formed a partnership with Piramal Asset Management Private Limited to invest in illiquid credit opportunities in India. The two organizations will invest US$300 million, with 75 percent of the money coming from CDPQ and the remainder from Piramal. CDPQ oversees C$326.7 billion (US$246 billion) in net assets. CDPQ’s partnership with Piramal, an India-based manager that is part...

February 7, 2020
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05Feb

Controversial plan to use pensions for government funding in South Africa

Labour federation Cosatu met with government, business, community and labour leaders on Monday (3 February) to present its plan to rescue debt-stricken Eskom. Key to this plan is the use of civil servant pensions and a state-run unemployment fund to cut Eskom’s debt by about R254 billion, which would then leave the power utility with a sum of around R200 billion to service, which Eskom has previously said it can manage as it currently struggles to cover its daily...

February 5, 2020
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04Feb

Europe’s biggest pension fund sets 2050 ‘climate neutral’ goal

ABP, Europe’s biggest pension fund, will phase out investments in coal miners and companies that extract oil from tar sands as part of a plan to make its €466bn investment portfolio “climate neutral” by 2050. Read also Netherlands’ $515 billion pension fund to accelerate cuts to fossil fuel investments Launching a new sustainability policy on 3 February, the pension fund said that, over the next five years, it plans to slash the CO2 emissions from its €150bn equity portfolio...

February 4, 2020
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04Feb

Longevity and risk transfer: a booming market

Last year marked a record year for the UK’s pension risk transfer (PRT) market, with an estimated £50bn (€59bn) worth of transactions completed, including buy-ins, buyouts, and longevity swaps. The total was almost double that of the previous year, according to Mercer, which compiled the figures, and there were several innovative approaches to buy-ins and buyouts as demand from pension funds and competition among insurers reached new highs. Communications company Telent conducted the biggest single deal of the...

February 4, 2020
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January 2020

30Jan

South Africa Unions Want Infrastructure Funded by Pensions

The Congress of South African Trade Unions, a key ruling party ally, is pushing senior members of government to consider its proposals to rescue the state’s indebted power utility before next month’s budget. In addition to suggestions it made in a November document that civil servants’ pensions and a state-run unemployment fund be used to cut Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s debt by more than half to 200 billion rand ($14 billion), Cosatu wants the government to consider making it...

January 30, 2020
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30Jan

US. New York State pension fund puts 27 coal companies under review

New York state’s top pension fund official said it was reviewing whether to divest from 27 coal companies and could make decisions on $98 million in holdings within two months. The reviews by the third-largest U.S. state pension system, with $211 billion under management, could set the tone for other retirement plans facing public concerns about climate change. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in an interview on Tuesday said his office began reaching out several weeks ago to...

January 30, 2020
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