DB changes create opps for investment managers

A report from the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) identifies a move among DB schemes towards more diverse investment strategies and a shift away from traditional equity and bond investments. The report shows pension fund assets invested in equities fell from around 65% in 1997 to 40% in 2005 while investment in bonds fell from 23% in 2002 to 19% in 2005. Threadneedle says it has also seen an increased demand from pension funds looking seriously at higher-alpha generating strategies such as absolute return, equity long-short and extended alpha, in place of more traditional lone asset cla...