Pension schemes face a set of complex and often difficult challenges relating to the investment of its assets, emanating from, inter alia, the need to grow the real value of pension funds by generating investment returns on one hand whilst assuring the preservation of members’ capital on the other. The sheer size of pension schemes’ assets relative to investment markets creates challenges unique to institutional investors who must carefully manage entry and exits into investment positions.

This programme builds delegates’ knowledge from first principles by examining the current landscape of pension fund investment and the key tenets of investment analysis – including valuation techniques – and portfolio management theory and practice. The mainstream asset classes in pension fund investment, viz. bonds and equities are covered in detail and the course also provides an introduction to alternative investment classes including Real Estate, Private Equity and Infrastructure and their role in enhancing portfolio diversification and risk-adjusted returns.

Fund performance analysis, including attribution, is important to both ensure that pension schemes remain on target to grow investment funds to meet their liabilities as well as to assess the performance of fund managers and the programme provides delegates with a full understanding of key performance analytical methodologies as well as the interpretation of analyses.

Course Objectives

On completion, you will be able to:

• Understand the principal asset valuation techniques
• Appreciate the limitations of public security investment
• Analyse the risks and return potential of the major asset classes
• Understand the tenets of modern portfolio theory
• Appreciate the potential benefits of, and risks pertaining to, private market investment
• Analyse the key risks of different asset types

Key Topics

• Risk pricing across the principal asset classes
• Equity market analysis and valuation techniques
• The role of bonds and money market securities in pension funds
• Bond valuation and key risk measures including duration
• Analysing the risk and return profiles of Private Equity and Infrastructure investment
• Understanding asset-liability risk from a pension fund perspective
• The critical role of liquidity in contemporary investment
• Risk management and the role of derivatives

All courses will be conducted entirely in English. A proficient level of both spoken and written English is required by all delegates so that they are able to fully benefit from the course and participate in our interactive style of training.