Publicaties | CFA Society Netherlands

The future of responsible investing

1 October 2022 in VBA Journaal door Rob Bauer

I am very honoured and thankful that the VBA Journal invited me to contribute to its special 150th edition. In this article, I will share my personal perspective on the responsible investing phenomenon. I will first look back at the past two decades in which responsible investing transformed from a niche product to a hyped set of investment solution services. I will then highlight several implicit trade-offs and conflicts of interest that materialize in the many manifestations of responsible investing such as divestment, engagement, and ESG-integration strategies.

Not yet over: 2008

1 October 2022 in VBA Journaal door Jaap Koelewijn, Director Financieel Denkwerk (former editor-in-chief VBA Journaal winter 2008 up to and including summer 2016)

I had only just started as editor in chief of VBA Journaal when the credit crisis (‘the global financial crisis’) erupted. This event had a huge impact on both my professional life and my personal life. The investment funds that I oversaw were at risk of collapsing, banks were being held afloat with all sorts of buoyancy aids and the media were asking me to explain all this. My children, who were still very young at the time, wondered whether cash machines would continue to dispense money and whether their grandparents’ pensions were safe. My own portfolio halved in value. Through robust government intervention, the problems were controlled relatively quickly.

Signals are green for quant investing

1 October 2022 in VBA Journaal door David Blitz and Pim van Vliet

In this article we will reflect on the developments in the field of quant investing and argue that the future looks bright. With decades worth of experience at actively navigating multiple investment cycles we have learned that a long-term winning formula can sometimes feel like riding a rollercoaster in the short run. Due to this cyclical nature quant investing is often more a test of character than a test of intelligence and ‘strong hands’ are a necessary condition for success.

DeFi and the foundation of a new finance

1 October 2022 in VBA Journaal door Campbell R. Harvey

Out with the old

The Determinants of Institutional Capital Allocation to Real Estate

1 October 2022 in VBA Journaal door Alexander Carlo, Piet Eichholtz and Nils Kok

Pension funds around the world are increasingly investing in alternative assets, and the most important of these “alternatives” is real estate. We employ the CEM global pension fund database to shed light on the determinants of pension fund allocation to real estate, both over time and in the cross-section. We find that pension funds’ strategic allocation to real estate – net of return effects – is the result of the historical performance of real estate relative to other asset classes, and that pension funds quickly adjust their actual allocation rate to their strategic allocation decisions.

Unfortunately people are not donkeys

1 October 2022 in VBA Journaal door Hans de Ruiter

I was editor-in-chief of VBA Journaal from 2001 until 2008. We had just emerged from a period when most of the articles that we received were written by academics. Quite often, this meant that the content of the magazine and the requirements and interests of our readers were not properly aligned. From 2001 onwards it was mainly authors who actually worked in the financial sector that provided us with articles. In the beginning, this took some effort on our part, but the process became easier as time went on – especially because as editors we actively tried to come up with interesting themes and looked for authors to match.

A survey of the developments in quantitative finance

1 October 2022 in VBA Journaal door Mark Geene, Roy Hoevenaars and Sander Nooij

Fast-speaking Koijen talks about the financial markets with great passion. His main focus is why financial markets fluctuate as much as they do. “If on a given day the market rises or falls, you can usually come up with a few possible reasons. But no one really knows. Even when quarterly figures are published, we have a hard time explaining why share prices go up or down. That is one of the crucial questions that my collaborators and I are asking”, says the professor.

Samenvatting van RBA-scriptie

15 April 2022 in VBA Journaal door Gregory Landbrug is Equity Portfolio Manager bij a.s.r

LANGE TERMIJN SMALL-CAP AANDELENPORTEFEUILLE ALS ALTERNATIEF VOOR PRIVATE AANDELEN

Beleggen met impact in Nederlands zorgvastgoed

15 April 2022 in VBA Journaal door Joep Munten

STABIELE INKOMSTEN DOOR TE INVESTEREN IN VERDUURZAMING EN ENERGIETRANSITIE

Sustainability embedding in Dutch listed companies

15 April 2022 in VBA Journaal door Constantijn van Aartsen, Rob Bauer, Tereza Bauer and Mieke Olaerts

Dutch listed companies have, over the past decades, become increasingly engaged with the social and environmental footprints of their activities. This engagement has varied in intensity, with some companies leading international sustainability rankings while others are just getting started. Despite these efforts, it is clear that governments, investors, customers and society at large are demanding more corporate responsibility for global issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and human rights abuses.

De bonus die reële activa particulieren bieden, is voor institutionele beleggers slechts rompslomp

15 April 2022 in VBA Journaal door Bert Bakker

Reële activa, daar hou ik van. Niks tegen ‘gewone’ beursgenoteerde liquide beleggingen hoor, en ja, ik kijk door de bril van een gewone, niet zeer vermogende particulier. Maar ik denk aan de vreugde die een eigen huis kan geven, of een vakantiehuis, of kunst en andere ‘collectables’ zoals bijzondere horloges, juwelen of klassieke auto’s. Die vreugde is formidabele bonus bovenop de waardestijging (meestal door ordinaire asset inflatie) die zulke activa op lange termijn soms ook bieden. Zeker ‘collectibles’ brengen vaak zoveel meer aan leerzame ervaringen met zich mee dan een passief belegde portefeuille van bijvoorbeeld trackers.

Insights on existing and new drivers for impactful infrastructure investments

15 April 2022 in VBA Journaal door Dennis Jong and Mark Vuurberg

In today’s environment of volatile macro-economic policies and political swings, demand for investments yielding predictable and attractive stable returns is higher than ever. However, many low-risk instruments such as bonds continue to yield negative inflation-adjusted returns across Europe. Infrastructure may offer investors a balanced solution to manage these challenges. Infrastructure comprises physical assets which provide basic services required for a society to function, such as (toll) roads, electricity grids or power generation. These assets offer highly predictable revenues for multiple reasons; all income is contracted with reliable counterparties, sensitivity to economic cycles is limited as these assets tend to have monopolistic characters due to prohibitive costs of building competition and inflation protection is strong as infrastructure revenues are often linked directly or indirectly to inflation.

Hernieuwbare energie in de beleggingsportefeuille

15 April 2022 in VBA Journaal door Joost Bergsma

Afgelopen jaren heeft hernieuwbare energie een prominente plaats gekregen in de infrastructuurportefeuilles van veel Nederlandse beleggers. Dit is niet alleen het gevolg van een aantrekkelijk rendement-risicoprofiel maar ook vanwege de invulling die met name institutionele beleggers geven aan maatschappelijk verantwoord beleggen (MVB). Deze beleggers hebben ambitieuze doelstellingen op dit gebied geformuleerd en investeringen in hernieuwbare energie verwezenlijken hun bijdrage aan de energietransitie. De energietransitie betreft de overgang van traditionele, fossiele brandstoffen als olie, kolen en gas naar hernieuwbare of duurzame energie. Onder hernieuwbare energie wordt verstaan het opwekken en de productie van elektriciteit door het gebruik van natuurlijke bronnen als zon en wind.

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