(May 19, 2014)— More than 60 institutional investors from all around Europe joined aiCIO in the Savoy Ballroom to celebrate innovation in the industry—and highlight those making the largest strides.
Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, and Swiss investors met with their British counterparts for a night of fun and networking on Thursday May 15, but only eight left the hotel with a trophy.
Following the manager/provider categories, the night’s first asset owner award went to Denmark’s Industriens Pension. The fund has been fighting low interest rates—like many others—but went direct with real investments to take advantage of the liquidity premium they offer.
Next, the award for portfolio construction was given to a pension fund that took the category’s name quite literally: Chilterns Local Government Pension Scheme merged its portfolios into one to save on costs, reduce key man risk, and improve its buying power.
The risk management award was taken by the UK’s Pension Protection Fund, which limited manager risk by bringing on two liability-driven investment providers rather than one.
While all of the nominees were applauded for the strides they have made in the various aspects of the wide-ranging topic of “governance”, the winner of this year’s award, for its “White Sheet of Paper” project, was PGGM.
Of the thousands of funds across Europe, some have the vision to push the boundaries using relatively modest resources. Associated British Foods, which came first among corporate/industry pension schemes below €5 billion, has been bolstering its real estate portfolio after building an internal team. It also found time to roll out one of the UK’s largest DC programmes.
If it is tough to make changes to a small pension, it can be even harder to turn around something ten times the size. Since revamping the investment team two years ago, Santander Pension Fund has won praise from several parts of the investment industry. Now, it has also won the Innovation Award for corporate/industry pension scheme above €5 billion.
The Merseyside pension fund—which took the award for the public pension below €15 billion prize—has likewise pushed the boundaries with new investment ideas and strategies.
Just understanding the level of assets in some of these public pension funds above €15 billion is a struggle, not to mention coming up with an effective plan to invest them. APG has gone above and beyond, and topped its fellow pension giants to take home the trophy.
All finalists for CIO/ Investment Head of the Year earned applause for being remarkable in their own way, but none were louder than for Tom Joy, CIO of the Church Commissioners Fund, who earned the prize this year.
Nominees and winners of the asset management and other service providers were announced earlier in the year, and can be found on our events page.
aiCIO would like to congratulate all nominees and winners.
A photo gallery of the winners will be published online this week, with a full write up in the European edition of aiCIO in June. Subscription is available on our website.