German conference & awards


Best real estate investor Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe, the occupational pension scheme for doctors in Westphalia, northwest


Germany, snapped up the award for best real estate investor for the fourth successive year. The scheme manages €13.8bn (£11.6bn) of assets and about 17% of its portfolio is invested in real estate, employing a combination of pooled funds, man- dates and listed real estate.


Best corporate investor Automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshaven caught the jury’s eye for outstanding investment performance in


the corporates category, where its retirement savings for its 157,500 staff are managed. ZF has gained a high level of trac- tion among staff members and has employed an innovative approach to liquidity management in corporate acquisitions, the jury praised.


Best local authority investor The local authority pension fund for North Rhine Westphalia won this year’s award for best local author-


ity investor. The jurors praised the fund’s commitment to increasing the share of equity investment in its portfolio, which was gradually lifted to 33% from 18%, with a target allocation of 45%. The investor pursues a buy-and-hold strategy for its fixed income allocation, with a significant proportion of its assets being administered free of charge at the German central bank.


Best Pensionskasse First in the category “Best Pensionskasse” - the Ger- man equivalent of defined benefit - is BVV Versi-


cherungsverein des Bankgewerbes, the occupational retire- ment provision for the banking industry. With more than €30bn (£25.3bn) in assets, it is Germany’s largest Pensionskasse. Jurors praised above average investment returns, clear invest- ment principles as well as an outstanding IT infrastructure. BVV has 356,000 active members and 129,000 retired members.


Best Pensionsfonds Best-in-class in the Pensionsfonds category – defined contribution in the UK – was Evonik Pensionstreu- hand, the €10bn (£8.5bn) retirement savings provider for chemistry group Evonik. The judges were impressed by its ESG integration, which combines a divestment blacklist adopted from the Norwegian pensions industry with in-house ESG screening. Evonik’s investment in sustainable hydrogen power was praised.


Best sustainable investor Johannesstift Diakonie, which has already been recog- nised for its successes in fixed income, also won the award as best sustainable investor.


Best alternatives investor Ludwigsburg-based asset manager W&W Asset Man- agement has been recognised as best-in-class in the category alternatives. The firm has doubled its assets under management over the past five years, to €3bn (£2.5bn), from €1.5bn (£1.2bn), with only 20% of its alternative assets externally managed. The firm has, among others, conducted a series of successful direct and co-investments in private equity.


Readers’ Choice Award: Thought leader 2022 Hannah Helmke, co-founder and chief executive of right. based on science, a climate metrics provider, is


this year’s winner of the Reader’s Choice Awards, which recog- nises thought leadership in the investment industry. right. based on science provides climate metrics drawn from an implied temperature rise in Celsius, rather than looking simply at the carbon footprint of individual businesses. A firm’s CO₂ emissions are also weighed against economic out- put, which allows investors to gain a more accurate under- standing of the climate impact of individual firms. right. based on science was launched for corporates to measure their climate impact, but has gained traction among banks and institutional investors to measure the climate impact of the companies they invest in. Winner Hannah Helmke said: “Early on I learned that you have to find that specific thing in your life that you are passion- ate about and where the work is fulfilling and brings you joy.”


Issue 116 | September 2022 | portfolio institutional | 57


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