LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) – Two and-a-half months into the year and funds doyenne Nicola Horlick is already feeling tired – worn out from juggling the demands of film production, a Brazilian farmland buy and launching a chain of members clubs.

“It (2011) is going to be extremely busy, I feel exhausted already,” says Horlick, the chief executive and founder of Mayfair-based investment house Bramdean Asset Management.

It takes her a while to enumerate the whole gamut of ventures she is involved with, but Horlick is swift to point out the important change in her investment philosophy that has inspired such a diversified, if a little unfocused, approach.

After years managing traditional stocks and fixed income assets, Horlick is now better known for her off-piste ventures.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a bit like playing Russian roulette, investing in quoted equities, because you are not allowed to know what’s going on,” she says, pointing out the perils of modern-day fund management.

“I would rather invest in privately owned business,” said Horlick, who made headlines for the first time in 1997 for confronting Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) over her suspension from its UK unit, Morgan Grenfell Asset Management.

Her decision to travel to the bank’s Frankfurt headquarters with journalists in tow to fight for her job, while raising a brood of children including one gravely ill with leukaemia, saw her nicknamed the City’s “superwoman”.

LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) – Public sector pensions in Britain will be delinked from final salaries, a review recommended, contributing estimated savings of 8 billion pounds to government efforts to eliminate a record budget deficit.

The review, published on Thursday and expected to be broadly adopted by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition by 2015, is likely to prompt a wave of industrial action, unions warned.

As expected, the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission, chaired by former opposition cabinet minister Lord John Hutton, recommended a switch to the less generous terms of pensions based on career average salaries, which it said would favour workers on low pay.

It also called for an end to public sector retirements below 60 years of age.

“Lord Hutton is wise to propose a clean break from the past by recommending closing all accrual in final salary schemes,” said John Cridland, director general of employers’ association CBI.

Government statistics show that, in 2009, 12.7 million workers and pensioners were members of public pension schemes, most based on final salaries.

Final-salary pension promises already earned would be honoured, the report said. This type of pension, financed partly by the taxpayer, has been deemed unsustainable and unfair given the less generous deals most private sector workers get.

LONDON (Reuters) – A review of British public sector pensions on Thursday recommended less generous terms, which it says will favour workers on low-pay, and called for the end of retirement before 60 years of age.

The report by the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission, led by former cabinet minister John Hutton, is expected to be broadly adopted by the government and prompt a wave of industrial action by unions.

As expected, the report recommended that existing final salary public service pension schemes be replaced by pensions based on career average earnings — a move that industry experts have said could save the budget 2 billion pounds a year.

Final-salary pension promises already earned would be honoured, the report said. This type of pension, financed partly by the tax payer, has been deemed unsustainable and unfair given the less generous deals most private sector workers get.

The new pension terms could be introduced before the end of this parliament in 2015, while allowing a longer transition period for groups such as the armed forces and the police.

Lord Hutton was appointed by chancellor George Osborne last June to devise ways to cut costs and make public pensions more sustainable as the government seeks to cut a deficit now at almost 150 billion pounds by around 30 billion pounds in each of the next three years.

A career average pension scheme, while still guaranteeing a retirement income proportional to pay, will hit highly-paid public sector worker harder while being “fairer” to those on lower wages, Hutton said.

LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) – A review of British public sector pensions on Thursday recommended less generous terms, which it says will favour workers on low-pay, and called for the end of retirement before 60 years of age.

The report by the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission, led by former cabinet minister John Hutton, is expected to be broadly adopted by the government and prompt a wave of industrial action by unions.

As expected, the report recommended that existing final salary public service pension schemes be replaced by pensions based on career average earnings — a move that industry experts have said could save the budget 2 billion pounds a year.

Final-salary pension promises already earned would be honoured, the report said. This type of pension, financed partly by the tax payer, has been deemed unsustainable and unfair given the less generous deals most private sector workers get.

The new pension terms could be introduced before the end of this parliament in 2015, while allowing a longer transition period for groups such as the armed forces and the police.

Lord Hutton was appointed by chancellor George Osborne last June to devise ways to cut costs and make public pensions more sustainable as the government seeks to cut a deficit now at almost 150 billion pounds by around 30 billion pounds in each of the next three years.

A career average pension scheme, while still guaranteeing a retirement income proportional to pay, will hit highly-paid public sector worker harder while being “fairer” to those on lower wages, Hutton said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Equity manager RCM plans to increase its range of commodity-focused funds as investors look to rising raw material prices as a means to protect their wealth against high inflation, its investment chief said.

Andreas Utermann, who is responsible for global strategy at the Allianz Global Investors (ALVG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) unit, sees rising inflation and continued strong economic growth in emerging markets as dominant themes for 2011.

“If you look at those themes, obviously commodities play a role because they are very important in the development of emerging markets, for the dynamics of reflation of the world economies,” he said in an interview.

Rising food and fuel prices — caused in part by adverse weather in some grain producing regions as well as fears over oil supply stemming from popular unrest in North Africa and the Arab world — has pushed up inflation and eroded the buying power of investors.

Meanwhile, alongside these supply problems, raw materials prices are being boosted even further by rising demand from resource-hungry developing economies, adding to a perception of commodities as an asset class that can outpace inflation.

Anticipating an increase in demand for commodities-related investment products as investors fret about rising prices eroding the value of their deposits, RCM is planning a series of new product launches, Uterman said.

“Overall from an asset class perspective, you are better off with a risk-on structure, away from bonds and particularly away from medium to long term maturities because they do not compensate for inflation,” Utermann said.

LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) – A review of public sector pensions will on Thursday propose ways to save Britain several billions of pounds a year but could trigger strikes across a sector already facing pay freezes and hefty job losses.

On Thursday the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission, led by ex-Labour minister John Hutton, is expected to suggest the UK should stop paying final salary pensions to public employees such as nurses, doctors and teachers.

Instead, a pension reflecting their career average pay could be introduced — this change alone would save 10 billion pounds a year, according to independent consultant John Ralfe.

That compares to government estimates which target a roughly 30 billion pound reduction in the deficit — now almost 150 billion pounds — in each of the next three years, suggesting it could contribute a third of the needed cuts.

Unions, however, say the public sector is being unfairly forced to bear the brunt of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition’s efforts to all but eliminate a record budget deficit of around 10 percent of national output over four years.

The sector is in the grip of a two-year pay freeze and hundreds of thousands of jobs are expected to be axed as ministers slash spending by about a fifth across departments.

Union leaders have warned that pension reform could be the catalyst to a wave of industrial action, which could add to strains within the coalition partnership and even feed through to the ballot box.

LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) – Emerging markets equity manager Charlemagne Capital Ltd (CHAR.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) saw pretax profit jump 51 percent in 2010 as growth in high-margin business including hedge funds helped offset net withdrawals.

The group posted net outflows of $64 million as investors moved money to developed economies because of mounting concerns about the sustainability of growth in some emerging markets.

Outflows were however outweighed by rising markets generating substantial performance fees, charged when funds beat pre-determined benchmarks, boosting pretax profit to $10.4 million from $6.8 million the previous year.

Analysts at brokerage Singer Capital had forecast full-year pretax profit of $10.5 million, including non-recurring net performance fees posted in the first six months.

Outflows were partly offset by significant inflows into Charlemagne’s OCCO eastern European hedge fund and mutual funds in the second part of the year.

The company is still seeing some outflows so far this year in its segregated institutional mandates and “white label” business, in which it manages funds for other brands, while mutual funds are attracting clients’ investments, Chief Financial Officer Lloyd Jones told Reuters.

REGIONAL REACH

LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Allianz Global Investment (AGI), the funds arm of one of Europe’s largest insurers, see growth opportunities in China’s burgeoning pensions market, where ageing residents are battling to fund their retirements.

Chief Executive Joachim Faber said the budding industry for Chinese voluntary corporate pensions, known as enterprise annuities, was a market to watch.

“China has a very interesting market, it is still struggling with enterprise annuity and has no individual product (to fund retirement)”, Faber told Reuters.

Enterprise annuities, which some see as China’s answer to U.S. defined contribution pension plans, have been designed to help China cope with a possible pensions timebomb as more people retire, leaving fewer in work to finance the pensions of their elders.

Allianz operates in China through a partnership with Guotai Junan Securities, known as Guotai Junan Allianz Fund Management Co, which it set up in 2002.

Faber told Reuters that AGI was already advising a number of Chinese institutional clients but was looking ahead to potential opportunities in serving private individuals who wanted additional retirement income.

AGI is also seeking to boost its pension business by offering inflation protection and post-retirement investments to its traditional customer base in Europe and the United States.