A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any program, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. The U.S. Government's Social Security Trust Fund, which oversees $2.57 trillion in assets, is the world's largest public pension fund. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and private companies. They are especially important to the stock market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold about USD$6 trillion in assets. In 2012, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that pension funds worldwide hold over $33.9 trillion in assets, the largest for any category of institutional investor ahead of mutual funds, insurance companies, currency reserves, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, or private equity.
A unit trust is a form of collective investment constituted under a trust deed. A unit trust pools investors' money into a single fund, which is managed by a fund manager. Unit trusts offer access to a wide range of investments, and depending on the trust, it may invest in securities such as shares, bonds, gilts, and also properties, mortgage and cash equivalents. Those investing in the trust own "units", whose price is called the "net asset value" (NAV). The number of these units is not fixed and when more is invested in a unit trust, more units are created.
An offshore fund is generally a collective investment scheme domiciled in an offshore jurisdiction. Like the term "offshore company", the term is more descriptive than definitive, and both the words 'offshore' and 'fund' may be construed differently.
A SICAV is a collective investment scheme common in Western Europe, especially Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Malta, France, and the Czech Republic. SICAV is an acronym in French for société d'investissement à capital variable, which can be translated as 'investment company with variable capital and securities '.
A common contractual fund (CCF) is a collective investment scheme structure in Ireland introduced by the European Communities UCITS Regulations, 2003.
Fonds commun de placement translates to "investment funds" or "mutual funds", and are open-ended collective investment funds. The legal structure is neither a trust or a company and are more like an open ended partnership. They are similar to common contractual funds in Ireland, tax transparent funds in the UK and "fondsen voor gemene rekening" in the Netherlands.
Orco Property Group S.A. is a real estate development company based in Luxembourg, listed on the Euronext in Paris, Prague, Warsaw and Budapest Stock Exchange, it is a subsidiary of CPI Property Group.
Union Asset Management Holding AG is the investment arm of the DZ Bank Group and part of the cooperative financial services network. It was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Frankfurt.
An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages include an ability to:
In France, pensions fall into five major divisions;
Universal Investment is a group of companies headquartered in Frankfurt am Main with three regulated investment companies based in Germany, Luxembourg and Ireland. Biggest part is Universal-Investment Gesellschaft mbH, founded in 1968. Core offerings are investment fund services and management company services for asset management companies and institutional investors. The company launches and administers funds for all asset classes such as securities, alternative investments and real estate.
A specialized investment fund or SIF is a lightly regulated and tax-efficient regulatory regime in Luxembourg aimed for a broader range of eligible investors. This type of investment fund is governed by the Luxembourg law of 13 February 2007 replacing the law of 1991 defining the legal framework for institutional funds and enlarging the distribution scope to "well-informed investors". The SIF law significantly simplified the rules for setting up investment fund structures ranging from straightforward investment strategies investing in listed securities to hedge funds, real estate and private equity funds.
A tax transparent fund (TTF) - also known as an authorised contractual scheme fund - is the proposed authorised collective investment scheme structure in the United Kingdom once the UK Finance Bill 2012 becomes an act and when the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the Corporation Tax Act 2010 are amended, sometime mid-2012. TTFs will then have the option to be based in the UK rather than in competing European domiciles. Both Luxembourg and Ireland have already introduced such structures, formally known as the Fond commun de placement (FCP) and the Common contractual fund (CCF).
Liquid tradable securities is a generic phrase for a wide range of financial instruments. It often differentiates financial instruments that are easily tradable as opposed to those that require the permission of the company or a signed document that registers the transfer of securities between two market participants. Another way to look at it is the difference between how a person buys a fund and how they buy a bond or share.
Meridiam is a global investor and asset manager based in Paris specialized in developing, financing and managing long-term public infrastructure projects. Founded in 2005, Meridiam invests in public infrastructure in Europe, North America and Africa.
Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund or QIAIF is a Central Bank of Ireland regulatory classification established in 2013 for Ireland's five tax-free legal structures for holding assets. The Irish Collective Asset-management Vehicle or ICAV is the most popular of the five Irish QIAIF structures, it is the main tax-free structure for foreign investors holding Irish assets.
