While MassPRIM told ai5000 that they are not currently taking action following the unanimous vote late last month by the SEC to curtail so-called “pay-to-play” schemes, a variety of public pension funds are working to adopt policies limiting the use of placement agents.
BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward’s tour of the Gulf last week increased speculation that the company is looking for investment from sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and other state entities in the region, yet Abu Dhabi is reluctant to invest in the company, a report said.
Allocations to alternative assets -- specifically to commodities and
infrastructure -- have continued to rise and now account for 17% of all
pension fund assets globally, up from 6% ten years ago, Towers Watson
research reveals.
Hector Mayol, the system’s Administrator, notes that required benefit payments are eating into investable capital, but that the Commonwealth’s Governor is now setting his sights on the pension problem.
A report analyzing the market's reactions to investments by
sovereign wealth funds, with approximately $3 trillion in assets in 2008
and a projected $15 trillion by 2015, finds that wealth fund injections
in the US have unintended consequences.
The second largest public pension fund in the US has
acquired $216 million worth of property in Q1, further indication that
the real estate market is slowly recovering following the global
economic crisis.
Diageo has found a creative way to plug its growing UK pension hole:
Fill it with £430 million ($642 million) worth of Scotch from its
distilleries in Scotland.
