THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Mark Cobley
Of FINANCIAL NEWS
OCTOBER 12, 2009
By MARK COBLEY
One of the U.K.’s biggest pension plans is moving forward with a strategy to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in alternative assets, potentially including hedge funds for the first time.
The £10.6 billion ($16.8 billion) U.K. pension fund for oil company Royal Dutch Shell Group PLC agreed to a new strategic investment plan over the summer, according to a recent report to members of the pension plan. This includes a 5% allocation to alternative assets — a category that includes hedge funds, infrastructure, and commodity funds. The allocation will come on top of the 5% it already has invested in private equity.
The Shell fund is the latest big investor to give a vote of confidence to the hedge-fund industry, which went through the worst period in its history during the financial crisis last year. Last week, alternative-assets consultancy Preqin published a survey of 50 pension funds, insurers, family offices and other investors, and found that 73% of them said their hedge-fund portfolios had either met or exceeded return expectations, up from 62% that said so last year.
Shell’s fund trustees first raised the idea of a hedge-fund investment early last year. A move into bonds last year limited its losses, helping it to preserve a surplus of 2% at a time when most pension funds have slid into deficit. The trustee board wrote in the report to members that “well-chosen hedge funds can provide diversification benefits for the fund in volatile markets.”
They continued: “Moving to the new strategic asset allocation will require a significant amount of sales and purchases . [I]mplementation has already started but is likely to take several months in the current financial climate, in order to minimize transaction costs and to avoid the loss of value in the current portfolios.”
The trustees couldn’t be reached for comment; Shell didn’t respond to a request.
Write to Mark Cobley at [email protected]
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
