Amundi –
Gert-Jan Verhagen has been named chief executive officer of Amundi in the Netherlands. Prior to his new appointment, he had been head of indexing, ETF and smart beta sales for Benelux at Amundi since 2015. Prior to that, he was head of BlackRock iShares in The Netherlands since 2012, and before that he was iShares ETF senior sales director since 2010.
Verhagen worked for Van Lanschot Bankiers between 2000 and 2010, where he was head of product management investments. He started his career in finance in 1995 as a management trainee at ABN AMRO Bank. After his traineeship, he fulfilled the function of private banker investment advice between 1996 and 2000.
By Susanna Rust2021-01-25T13:04:00+00:00
Some of the UK’s largest pension investors have written to prime minister Boris Johnson to request a meeting with him to discuss the country’s net-zero strategy ahead of this year’s United Nations climate change conference.
The asset owners also wrote to the secretary of transport, setting out key principles the government should integrate in its transport decarbonisation plan and planning for the 2030 sales ban on petrol and diesel cars in the UK.
“Climate change is recognised as the most significant global risk facing investors,” the letters state. “Even a short delay in implementing the necessary policies increases the likelihood of a disorderly transition, threatening beneficiaries’ savings and the resilience of the financial system.”
Investors offer advice to ministers for U.K.’s low-carbon ambitions
Bloomberg
Eight asset owners have written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other ministers to offer their help in determining how the financial sector can contribute to the U.K. s efforts to shift to a net-zero economy.
Signatories represent more than £230 billion ($314.7 billion) in assets and were brought together by the U.N.-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. Climate change is recognised as the most significant global risk facing investors, the letter said. For our beneficiaries, it threatens their livelihoods, their retirement savings, their health, their quality of life. Even a short delay in implementing the necessary policies increases the likelihood of a disorderly transition, threatening beneficiaries savings and the resilience of the financial system.
Local Pensions Partnership gains new real estate head Jan 21, 2021 By Funds Europe
Louise Warden has become head of real estate within the private markets group at Local Pensions Partnership Investments (LPPI), a UK manager for the pooled assets of three pension funds.
Warden has been promoted internally and will manage LPPI’s real estate portfolio with “ambitious asset management and capital deployment objectives”.
Reporting to Simon Davy, head of private markets, Warden has managed property portfolios for West Yorkshire Pension Fund and worked for the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.
At LPPI she was most recently a real estate portfolio manager, joining in August 2019.
By Susanna Rust2020-12-17T13:53:00+00:00
The London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) is investing £100m (€109m) in the London-focussed investment fund it and two local authority pension pools are launching.
London CIV has teamed up with Local Pensions Partnership (LPP) and LPFA to create the fund, which will focus on investment opportunities in the UK capital in residential property – specifically build-to-rent – and affordable housing, community regeneration, digital infrastructure, and clean energy.
The targeted offering for the fund – The London Fund – is £300m.
“Further material commitments from several London CIV client funds could see a second close in 2021 to bring the fund to capacity,” the fund partners said in an announcement.