Latest news with #pensionFund
South China Morning Post
09-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
How to ‘sludge' HK migrants into leaving the UK and Canada
'Nudging' is the gentle way of pushing you towards making good choices; think of your nice parents. 'Sludging' is the opposite, designed to encourage you to make bad or at least suboptimal decisions; picture the car/insurance/mobile phone/real estate salesmen. They are terms in pop psychology borrowed from behavioural and cognitive sciences. Some governments such as that under former British prime minister David Cameron even set up a department of nudges, though it had a more respectable title. Whether it ended up nudging or sludging citizens remains a matter of dispute. One amusing example of nudging is about a European international airport – I forget which one – that needed to cut budgets and slash the number of toilet cleaners. So they started putting tiny toy-like goalposts at the centre of urinals so male users naturally aimed better rather than splashing all over. Here's another example, from an American comedy. The girls in a high school take to kissing – pressing lipsticks on – the big mirror in a school toilet. That creates a lot more work for the janitor. Instead of posting a public warning, the cleaner openly mops the mirror with water taken from toilet bowls for everyone to see. That stops the kissing practice in no time. There are, however, supposedly more sophisticated principles guiding a nudging policy when being launched, say getting workers to join a pension fund. It should be transparent and never misleading. Other choices, even those considered suboptimal, should still be available. You can easily opt out of any option you choose, at least within a reasonable time frame. And it should encourage behaviour that benefits you. Now imagine they are all turned into their opposites, and you have sludging in all its glory.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AustralianSuper Boosts Private Equity With Four New Deals Coming
(Bloomberg) -- AustralianSuper is increasing its allocation to unlisted assets as the country's biggest pension fund works to finalize four private equity deals by the end of the year, according to the firm's investment chief. NYC Commutes Resume After Midtown Bus Terminal Crash Chaos Struggling Downtowns Are Looking to Lure New Crowds What Gothenburg Got Out of Congestion Pricing Massachusetts to Follow NYC in Making Landlords Pay Broker Fees California Exempts Building Projects From Environmental Law 'We are looking to put on four new private equity managers over this calendar year period and it looks like that is well in train,' Mark Delaney said in an interview on Thursday. 'The team know these managers from working previously with them and they have really good long-term track records in straight-down-the-line, conventional, private equity.' Delaney didn't specify details of the arrangements or names of the fund managers. The deals follow a build-out of AustralianSuper's New York office that now has around 60 people who are partly tasked with developing relationships with private markets fund managers. Delaney held meetings with private equity firms on two trips to New York this year, he said. 'Capital raising is very low and generally investing in vintages when raising is low is the best strategy for private equity, so we think it's a more attractive asset class,' Delaney said. AustralianSuper said in May the private equity allocation of its balanced investment option could grow to 8% from 5%. The move comes after a challenging period for the pension's listed equity portfolio as returns were skewed to a handful of companies including the Magnificent Seven group of mega-cap tech firms. The dynamic 'has not suited our style of portfolio,' but performance may improve over time given the fund's 'long-term diversification,' across asset classes, he said. Australia's giant pensions have weathered heightened volatility through the year as President Donald Trump's trade agenda and pockets of global conflict have rocked global markets. US stocks initially tumbled after Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff announcement but have since reversed declines and on Wednesday set a fresh all-time high. Delaney, who oversees the fund's more than A$365 billion ($240 billion) in assets, said while US tariffs would likely slow growth in the economy and corporate profits, that does not warrant a reduced exposure to equities. 'There is a strong consensus that tariffs will cause a meaningful slowdown in the US economy but no recession,' Delaney said. 'We don't think it's enough for us to go underweight stocks.' Listen and follow The Bloomberg Australia Podcast on Apple, Spotify, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Terminal clients: Run NSUB AUPOD on your desktop to subscribe. --With assistance from Amy Bainbridge. SNAP Cuts in Big Tax Bill Will Hit a Lot of Trump Voters Too America's Top Consumer-Sentiment Economist Is Worried How to Steal a House China's Homegrown Jewelry Superstar Pistachios Are Everywhere Right Now, Not Just in Dubai Chocolate ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AustralianSuper Boosts Private Equity With Four New Deals Coming
(Bloomberg) -- AustralianSuper is increasing its allocation to unlisted assets as the country's biggest pension fund works to finalize four private equity deals by the end of the year, according to the firm's investment chief. NYC Commutes Resume After Midtown Bus Terminal Crash Chaos Struggling Downtowns Are Looking to Lure New Crowds What Gothenburg Got Out of Congestion Pricing Massachusetts to Follow NYC in Making Landlords Pay Broker Fees California Exempts Building Projects From Environmental Law 'We are looking to put on four new private equity managers over this calendar year period and it looks like that is well in train,' Mark Delaney said in an interview on Thursday. 'The team know these managers from working previously with them and they have really good long-term track records in straight-down-the-line, conventional, private equity.' Delaney didn't specify details of the arrangements or names of the fund managers. The deals follow a build-out of AustralianSuper's New York office that now has around 60 people who are partly tasked with developing relationships with private markets fund managers. Delaney held meetings with private equity firms on two trips to New York this year, he said. 'Capital raising is very low and generally investing in vintages when raising is low is the best strategy for private equity, so we think it's a more attractive asset class,' Delaney said. AustralianSuper said in May the private equity allocation of its balanced investment option could grow to 8% from 5%. The move comes after a challenging period for the pension's listed equity portfolio as returns were skewed to a handful of companies including the Magnificent Seven group of mega-cap tech firms. The dynamic 'has not suited our style of portfolio,' but performance may improve over time given the fund's 'long-term diversification,' across asset classes, he said. Australia's giant pensions have weathered heightened volatility through the year as President Donald Trump's trade agenda and pockets of global conflict have rocked global markets. US stocks initially tumbled after Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariff announcement but have since reversed declines and on Wednesday set a fresh all-time high. Delaney, who oversees the fund's more than A$365 billion ($240 billion) in assets, said while US tariffs would likely slow growth in the economy and corporate profits, that does not warrant a reduced exposure to equities. 'There is a strong consensus that tariffs will cause a meaningful slowdown in the US economy but no recession,' Delaney said. 'We don't think it's enough for us to go underweight stocks.' Listen and follow The Bloomberg Australia Podcast on Apple, Spotify, on YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Terminal clients: Run NSUB AUPOD on your desktop to subscribe. --With assistance from Amy Bainbridge. SNAP Cuts in Big Tax Bill Will Hit a Lot of Trump Voters Too America's Top Consumer-Sentiment Economist Is Worried How to Steal a House China's Homegrown Jewelry Superstar Pistachios Are Everywhere Right Now, Not Just in Dubai Chocolate ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg
03-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
AustralianSuper Boosts Private Equity With Four New Deals Coming
AustralianSuper is increasing its allocation to unlisted assets as the country's biggest pension fund works to finalize four private equity deals by the end of the year, according to the firm's investment chief. 'We are looking to put on four new private equity managers over this calendar year period and it looks like that is well in train,' Mark Delaney said in an interview on Thursday. 'The team know these managers from working previously with them and they have really good long-term track records in straight-down-the-line, conventional, private equity.'
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The carbon footprint of this big pension fund is shrinking year by year
A multi-billion pound public sector pension fund is exceeding a greenhouse gas reduction target year on year, a meeting heard. Dyfed Pension Fund, whose members includes council and other public sector employees in Mid and West Wales, was valued at £3.46bn in March 2024. Around 65-70% of this portfolio is invested in equities - or stocks and shares - and a decision was taken years ago to reduce equity exposure to carbon-intensive companies by 7% per year compared to the fund's baseline figure in September 2020. Stay informed on Carms news by signing up to our newsletter here READ MORE: Popular Welsh holiday park goes into administration READ MORE: Layla was raped at a house party by the 'joker' from school. This is her story, in her own words, and it will break your heart Anthony Parnell, treasury and pension investments manager at Carmarthenshire Council - host authority of Dyfed Pension Fund - told a meeting that exposure to carbon-intensive companies had fallen by an average of 13.9% per year between September 2020 and March 31, 2025. This figure factors in a lower fall of 10.7% during the 2024-25 financial year. "It's going in the right direction," Mr Parnell told the Dyfed Pension Fund committee, which helps oversee the fund. Referring to the 7% per annum target Mr Parnell said: "So we have overshot that and we continue to work to reduce that further going forward." The pension fund, like many others, has faced pressure from campaigners in recent years to reduce investment in high greenhouse gas-emitting sectors. It has also has a fidicuary duty to act in the best interest of its beneficiaries. The Dyfed Pension Fund committee meeting went on to hear about ongoing work to encourage "responsible investment" by an umbrella group called Wales Pension Partnership (WPP), which pools together investments of eight public sector pension funds including Dyfed's. WPP employs a firm to do this engagement work on its behalf, such as encouraging more responsible production of palm oil, which a committee report said was linked to deforestation and biodiversity loss. The firm - Robeco - has engaged with household names such as BP, Shell, Starbucks, Samsung Electronics and Tesla on various topics. The Dyfed Pension Fund committee report said Robeco wrote a letter to the chairman of BP along with other investors with a reminder that the company had passed a "binding resolution" in 2019 that called for alignment with the goals of the Paris climate agreement of 2015. The resolution, said the letter, was supported by 99% of BP's shareholders. Robeco also requested a say on climate at BP's annual general meeting this year.
