February 2020

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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29Jan

Measly Returns Spark $5 Billion Raid on Estonian Pension Savings

Cracking open a 4.85 billion-euro ($5.3 billion) piggy bank of pension savings may be a vote-winner. But Estonia’s plan to allow early access to retirement cash is facing a tide of criticism for being short-sighted. The government is meeting an election pledge by a junior coalition member to let more than half the Baltic nation’s 1.3 million residents reinvest or spend mandatory pension savings taken from tax contributions and gross salaries since 2002. The money would be released from...

January 29, 2020
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29Jan

Nigeria to borrow N2tn to fund infrastructure development

Nigeria’s National Economic Council (NEC) says the federal government has resolved to borrow two trillion from the current 10 trillion naira pension funds to finance the development of infrastructure. Niyi Falade, CEO of Crusader Sterling Pensions joins CNBC Africa to discuss this story. Watch de video in @CNBC Africa

January 29, 2020
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24Jan

New York City Takes ‘Major US. Next Step’ on Fossil Fuel Divestments

Meketa Investment Group has been selected to evaluate options and develop a prudent divestment strategy from fossil fuel companies in alignment with the fiduciary duties for New York City’s largest pension funds, the city’s mayor and comptroller announced. “While the Trump administration fails to address global warming as the crisis it is, New York City is taking action,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We are dedicated to delivering what we owe to our children and grandchildren, which is why...

January 24, 2020
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