Hermes

The government set "tougher targets than expected" in yesterday's Budget, fund managers say.

Reformed hedge funds operating under traditional principles can provide investors with valuable diversification against equities, delegates heard.

Directors of FTSE350 companies will face annual re-elections as part of the Financial Reporting Council's clampdown on corporate governance.

Trustees would be failing in their primary role if they allow issues of ethics to cloud their investment decisions, Ian Greenwood says.

GLOBAL - Pension funds activism as shareholders was "conspicuous by its absence" during the crisis but more engagement by schemes could have made things worse, an academic claimed.

Fund of funds provide pension schemes with investment diversification, although greater transparency is needed in the space as a whole, Hermes BPK Partners says.

IRELAND - Commodities can exceed equity returns over time while providing a good source of diversification in a scheme portfolio, Hermes head of commodities Colin O'Shea said.

Commodities can exceed equity returns over time while providing a good source of diversification in a scheme portfolio, Hermes head of commodities Colin O'Shea says.

UK - Hermes BPK Partners chief executive officer Matteo Perruccio said Europe's draft plans to regulate its alternative investment funds could be a boon to investment consultants if it goes ahead as planned.

UK/GLOBAL - The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) decided to sell its stake in Océ to Canon after the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeals rejected the pension fund's request to investigate Canon's tender offer to buy Océ.