Over the last five years, the number of hedge funds in the Netherlands has more than doubled, from 17 to about 40. Some of them, like Saemor and WinCap, have seen a growing interest from local and international investors, also due to their returns in 2014 (14% and 8.5% respectively by August) and their low volatility or correlation.
The Netherlands is also the home of some large and sophisticated pension funds. One of them is Univest, the pension fund set up by Unilever. Over the past year, Univest has transitioned from the hedge fund of funds structure to currently 70% direct investments. This has served the institution well, as it views the global hedge fund community as “enormous talent pool” that their internal staff can now also access and interact with more closely.
However, if there is one thing Univest is not interested in seeing in a hedge fund, it’s beta. The pension applies a beta constraint of 0.2 to its hedge funds portfolios, which means that “most of the long/short equity funds available in London, for example, are not interesting for large diversified institutional clients given their high beta and costs.”
The other aspect Univest is looking for in a hedge fund is adherence to certain ESG (Environmental, social and corporate governance) standards. This is important to Unilever, because the principle of sustainability should be reflected not only as a corporation but also in its pension plans' investments, and therefore also in the hedge fund pools. How does Univest implement ESG with hedge funds? What is an appropriate approach? What are they looking at? Why is tax (i.e. are the managers paying a fair level of personal taxes) an issue?
And how about cost? While in general hedge fund managers have become fairly transparent about fees, they are not always willing to be forthcoming with all the expenses. This is also a reason pensions tend to work with large external operational due diligence firms who, amongst other tasks, will split out all costs, including hidden fees.
The Dutch pensions are not the only investors looking for sustainability in alternative investments. The new Privium sustainable alternatives fund, sponsored by a multi family office, has been set up in the fund of funds format with a broad mandate. The fund can invest in microcredit funds, sustainable real estate and sustainable hedge funds. However, the manager admits that until now, his team has “not yet found the hedge fund that meets our sustainability criteria”. This sounds like an opportunity for hedge funds willing to step ahead and cooperate with those investors on the ESG side.
The Opalesque 2014 Netherlands Roundtable was sponsored by ABN AMRO Clearing and Eurex, and took place September 9th in Amsterdam with:
- Thomas Heidstra, Portfolio Manager Hedge Funds, Univest (Unilever Pension Fund)
- Gildas LeTreut, Global Head of Prime, ABN AMRO Clearing
- Sven Bouman, Founding Partner and CEO, Saemor Capital
- Iwan Vink, Founder and Managing Director, WinCap
- Ruud Smets, Partner and Portfolio Manager, Theta Capital
- Mark Baak, Director, Privium Fund Management
- Lothar Kloster, Head of Buy Side Relations, Eurex
The group also discussed:
- Are there strong empirical links between ESG factors and stock price returns?
- Which costs are sometimes charged to a fund that shouldn’t?
- Are we at the end of a valuation cycle for deep value strategies?
- Why should a hedge fund should return at least 10%+ per annum?
- ABN AMRO Clearing: A different type of prime broker
- Eurex’ new Euro Swap Future and how Eurex' cross-margining can potentially offset up to 70%
- The great rotation: Why hedge funds of funds are coming back into fashion
- “Not a separate asset class”: Why more investors are using hedge funds as a better way to invest in traditional assets
Tue, 03 Oct 2023 | |
Mon, 01 Aug 2022 | |
Wed, 23 Jun 2021 | |
Mon, 10 May 2021 | |
Thu, 17 Dec 2020 | |
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 | |
Tue, 02 Jun 2020 | |
Wed, 22 Jan 2020 | |
Fri, 06 Dec 2019 | |
Wed, 30 Oct 2019 | |
Wed, 17 Jul 2019 | |
Wed, 10 Jul 2019 | |
Mon, 03 Jun 2019 | |
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 | |
Sun, 07 Apr 2019 | |
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 | |
Thu, 31 Jan 2019 | |
Tue, 22 Jan 2019 | |
Fri, 11 Jan 2019 | |
Tue, 18 Dec 2018 | |
Tue, 11 Dec 2018 | |
Tue, 04 Dec 2018 | |
Mon, 26 Nov 2018 | |
Tue, 13 Nov 2018 | |
Wed, 31 Oct 2018 | |
Mon, 10 Sep 2018 | |
Wed, 08 Aug 2018 | |
Tue, 10 Jul 2018 | |
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 | |
Mon, 28 May 2018 | |
Mon, 14 May 2018 | |
Tue, 10 Apr 2018 | |
Fri, 02 Mar 2018 | |
Tue, 20 Feb 2018 | |
Thu, 08 Feb 2018 | |
Thu, 25 Jan 2018 | |
Wed, 17 Jan 2018 | |
Tue, 09 Jan 2018 | |
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 | |
Tue, 12 Dec 2017 | |
Mon, 04 Dec 2017 | |
Mon, 27 Nov 2017 | |
Tue, 14 Nov 2017 | |
Tue, 07 Nov 2017 | |
Mon, 16 Oct 2017 | |
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 | |
Mon, 24 Jul 2017 | |
Wed, 03 May 2017 | |
Thu, 20 Apr 2017 | |
Thu, 06 Apr 2017 | |
Sun, 12 Mar 2017 | |
Tue, 14 Feb 2017 | |
Wed, 25 Jan 2017 | |
Thu, 19 Jan 2017 | |
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 | |
Thu, 15 Dec 2016 | |
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 | |
Thu, 01 Dec 2016 | |
Thu, 24 Nov 2016 | |
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 | |
Mon, 07 Nov 2016 | |
Mon, 31 Oct 2016 | |
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 | |
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 | |
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 | |
Fri, 22 Jul 2016 | |
Thu, 14 Jul 2016 | |
Mon, 04 Jul 2016 | |
Tue, 21 Jun 2016 | |
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 |
Opalesque Roundtable Series - Montreal Opalesque Roundtable Series - Montreal (French version) |
More information |
|
|
Thu, 10 Mar 2016 | |
Wed, 02 Mar 2016 | |
Mon, 22 Feb 2016 | |
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 | |
Sun, 07 Feb 2016 | |
Wed, 27 Jan 2016 | |
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 | |
Fri, 01 Jan 2016 | |
Thu, 24 Dec 2015 | |
Wed, 16 Dec 2015 |
Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2016 Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2016 (Mandarin version) Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2016 (Portuguese version) |
More information |
|
|
Thu, 10 Dec 2015 | |
Wed, 02 Dec 2015 | |
Wed, 25 Nov 2015 | |
Tue, 17 Nov 2015 | |
Thu, 05 Nov 2015 | |
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 | |
Fri, 23 Oct 2015 | |
Fri, 16 Oct 2015 | |
Fri, 14 Aug 2015 | |
Sat, 01 Aug 2015 | |
Wed, 22 Jul 2015 | |
Thu, 25 Jun 2015 | |
Thu, 04 Jun 2015 | |
Thu, 28 May 2015 | |
Fri, 15 May 2015 | |
Wed, 06 May 2015 | |
Thu, 26 Mar 2015 | |
Fri, 20 Mar 2015 | |
Tue, 10 Mar 2015 | |
Tue, 10 Feb 2015 | |
Thu, 05 Feb 2015 |
Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2015 Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2015 (Mandarin version) Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2015 (Portuguese version) |
More information |
|
|
Thu, 29 Jan 2015 | |
Tue, 20 Jan 2015 | |
Thu, 08 Jan 2015 | |
Tue, 23 Dec 2014 | |
Wed, 10 Dec 2014 | |
Mon, 01 Dec 2014 | |
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 | |
Tue, 04 Nov 2014 | |
Tue, 28 Oct 2014 | |
Mon, 20 Oct 2014 | |
Wed, 01 Oct 2014 | |
Thu, 03 Jul 2014 | |
Fri, 27 Jun 2014 | |
Wed, 14 May 2014 | |
Fri, 07 Mar 2014 | |
Wed, 05 Feb 2014 | |
Wed, 22 Jan 2014 | |
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 | |
Tue, 07 Jan 2014 |
Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2014 Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2014 (Spanish version) Opalesque Roundtable Series - Miami 2014 (Portuguese version) |
More information |
|
|
Tue, 17 Dec 2013 | |
Mon, 09 Dec 2013 | |
Mon, 18 Nov 2013 | |
Thu, 07 Nov 2013 | |
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 | |
Mon, 05 Aug 2013 | |
Tue, 16 Jul 2013 | |
Wed, 10 Jul 2013 | |
Tue, 02 Jul 2013 | |
Mon, 24 Jun 2013 | |
Mon, 17 Jun 2013 | |
Wed, 12 Jun 2013 | |
Thu, 30 May 2013 | |
Mon, 20 May 2013 | |
Tue, 14 May 2013 | |
Mon, 21 Jan 2013 | |
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 | |
Mon, 17 Dec 2012 | |
Wed, 05 Dec 2012 | |
Mon, 26 Nov 2012 | |
Thu, 01 Nov 2012 | |
Tue, 23 Oct 2012 | |
Tue, 16 Oct 2012 | |
Tue, 02 Oct 2012 | |
Mon, 24 Sep 2012 | |
Wed, 25 Jul 2012 | |
Tue, 17 Jul 2012 | |
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 | |
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 | |
Thu, 07 Jun 2012 | |
Wed, 30 May 2012 | |
Wed, 23 May 2012 | |
Thu, 10 May 2012 | |
Thu, 03 May 2012 | |
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 | |
Thu, 12 Jan 2012 | |
Wed, 21 Dec 2011 | |
Fri, 09 Dec 2011 | |
Mon, 14 Nov 2011 | |
Mon, 07 Nov 2011 | |
Mon, 31 Oct 2011 | |
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 | |
Thu, 06 Oct 2011 | |
Wed, 10 Aug 2011 | |
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 | |
Mon, 25 Jul 2011 | |
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 | |
Thu, 19 May 2011 | |
Mon, 02 May 2011 | |
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 | |
Sun, 10 Apr 2011 | |
Sun, 03 Apr 2011 | |
Fri, 25 Mar 2011 | |
Thu, 20 Jan 2011 | |
Sun, 19 Dec 2010 | |
Tue, 14 Dec 2010 | |
Fri, 03 Dec 2010 | |
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 | |
Tue, 09 Nov 2010 | |
Thu, 04 Nov 2010 | |
Mon, 25 Oct 2010 | |
Mon, 04 Oct 2010 | |
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 | |
Wed, 16 Jun 2010 | |
Sun, 06 Jun 2010 | |
Mon, 24 May 2010 | |
Sat, 08 May 2010 | |
Wed, 28 Apr 2010 | |
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 | |
Thu, 18 Mar 2010 | |
Thu, 04 Mar 2010 | |
Sat, 09 Jan 2010 | |
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 | |
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 | |
Tue, 17 Nov 2009 | |
Mon, 09 Nov 2009 | |
Mon, 19 Oct 2009 | |
Mon, 05 Oct 2009 | |
Fri, 26 Jun 2009 | |
Tue, 09 Jun 2009 | |
Fri, 29 May 2009 | |
Thu, 21 May 2009 | |
Wed, 13 May 2009 | |
Fri, 24 Apr 2009 | |
Thu, 19 Mar 2009 | |
Fri, 05 Dec 2008 | |
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 | |
Fri, 07 Nov 2008 | |
Mon, 20 Oct 2008 | |
Wed, 01 Oct 2008 | |
Wed, 02 Jul 2008 | |
Wed, 11 Jun 2008 | |
Fri, 23 May 2008 | |
Tue, 20 May 2008 | |
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 | |
Wed, 23 Apr 2008 | |
Tue, 25 Mar 2008 | |
Mon, 17 Mar 2008 | |