Weekend Reading

I’ve got some interesting news and a couple of new research papers for your weekend reading. Enjoy…

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I’ve got some interesting news and a couple of new research papers for your weekend reading. Enjoy.

First, the news:

- Africa: If you’re off to invest in Africa, don’t forget to pack your ESG score cards.

- New SWFs: The Falklands just deposited around £8 million in a new “Oil Development Reserve”, which will one day become a new SWF.

- Mug Shot: Joe Dear looks frustrated... but CalPERS has recouped almost $100 billion since he took over. So turn that frown upside down, Joe.

- Frontier Finance I: South Africa’s PIC -- after 100 years of successful investing -- will be looking for new and interesting geographies to invest in over the coming years.

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- Frontier Finance II: ‘We commend the Oregon Investment Council staff for seeking to be a leader in public pension fund management.’ Second the motion.

- Departures: Terry McCredden appears to be leaving UniSuper.

- Good idea: Kazakhstan will merge 11 national pension funds into a single unit to leverage economies of scale.

- Bad idea: Kazakhstan’s new fund will also be asked to help finance development projects.

- Double Down: Struggling public pensions look for salvation in... riskier assets. Sigh.

- Flip the Script: Bank of America has asked two sovereign wealth funds for help in figuring out how to do its job. Oh how the tables have turned!

- Get Briefed: Send an email here and be entered into a drawing* for a free lifetime** subscription to The Daily Brief email. (*100% of participants win. **’Lifetime is defined as ‘until Ashby gets bored and decides to do something else’.)

Second, some good research for the extra-motivated among you:

- Adam Dixon and I released a new working paper yesterday entitled, “Frontier Finance”. In it we explain how pension funds and sovereign wealth funds can change finance for the better. (Note: The paper is best read with headphones playing this song on repeat.)

- Alexander Dyck and Lukasz Pomorski have a new paper entitled, “Investor Scale and Performance in Private Equity Investments”. Here’s a blurb to pique your interest: “We examine private equity (PE) investments of defined benefit pension plans and find that PE returns are 7.4% per year greater if the plan has significant rather than small holdings in PE. Cost savings for larger PE investors account for one quarter of the superior performance. These savings arise in equal parts from superior negotiating power and from more extensive use of lower cost investment approaches, most notably direct investing. Three quarters of the performance gains come from superior gross returns for larger PE investors.”

Anyway, have a great weekend!

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