Danish Pension Giant Loses CEO to Central Bank

One of the brightest lights of European institutional investment is to leave his post to join his country’s national bank.

(August 21, 2012) — Lars Rohde, CEO of Danish pension giant ATP, has been appointed chairman of the country’s central bank, as the fund reports another set of impressive half yearly results.

Rohde is to join the bank at the start of February as head of the three-member board of governors, the institution announced today, succeeding Governor Nils Bernstein who is set to retire.

Bernstein said: “Lars Rohde is a great choice for [the Danish Central Bank]. [He is] an experienced man who is highly respected and [has] in-depth knowledge of national bank operations. I want to congratulate Lars Rohde on the appointment and [wish him] good luck with the job.”

Rohde has been at the helm of ATP since 1998 and has overseen much of its transformation into an alpha-seeking, risk managing, public sector quasi-hedge fund.

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ATP‘s investment return for the first half of the year was just over DKK4.4 billion ($740 million), the institution said, due to positive results from four of its five risk classes. The equity and credit risk classes were the top performers.

“The European debt crisis continues unabated, and H1 was generally marked by great financial market uncertainty. Low interest rates also present a challenge for a pension provider such as ATP, and against this backdrop, we are satisfied with the results,” Rohde said.

Qatar Sweet on European Real Estate

The Qatari sovereign wealth fund is the largest purchaser of European property in its field, and is still keen for more.

(August 20, 2012) — The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has snapped up more European real estate than any other sovereign wealth fund (SWF), a report on the giant financial institutions has found.

Arabian Business Insider reported that the QIA was the second largest buyer of European real estate last year, having spent €3.5 billion on eight deals, including the London Olympic athlete’s village and a mall on Paris’ Champs Elysees.

The magazine cited Real Capital Analytics, a specialized research firm, as releasing the data.

The $100 billion SWF, which pools revenue from the sale of Qatar’s huge natural gas reserves, was second only to private-equity firm BlackStone in the major purchasing ranking last year.

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Qatar was behind much of the financing of The Shard, an iconic building now dominating London’s skyline, which is the tallest in Western Europe.

Investors have been turning back to real estate since the quasi-collapse of the financial system–but only towards top level properties, aiCIO  reported this month.

Good renting opportunities and hard assets to sell on have appealed to investors hurt by financial products over the past few years.

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