World's Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund Should Follow Canada's Model

NEW YORK, May 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A new in-depth review of the world's commonly accepted top sovereign wealth fund is being told to take a page out of the Canadian playbook. 

The study, commissioned by Norway's Ministry of Finance, "Review of the Active Management of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global," took a close look at the management of the fund since the 2007-2008 financial crisis and found that in order to realize greater returns, the fund should take more risk and adopt the opportunity cost management model pioneered by the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

"The Fund has been run extremely efficiently; everyone involved in its management is conscientious about delivering high-quality investment management services at the lowest cost," says Andrew Ang, Ann F. Kaplan Professor of Business and Chair of the Finance and Economics Division at Columbia Business School. "However, we found that by reducing its exposure to risk since 2009, the Fund is likely missing out on opportunities to increase returns through a more balanced approach. The Canadian model would help improve that."

The Norwegian Fund, which manages the country's royalties from oil and gas reserves in the North Sea, is one of the world's largest pools of capital in the world. Its holdings are predominantly in publicly traded stock and bond markets, and the Fund only began to invest in real estate in 2011. The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute considers the Norwegian fund to be the world's largest. 

The "Opportunity Cost Model" of active management was pioneered by the CPPIB (which manages over $180 billion) and is extensively used by the GIC Private Limited, formerly known as the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore. Under this model, all active decisions to deviate from benchmark are evaluated by the foregone opportunities to invest in low-cost, passive equity or bond portfolios. 

The authors find that active management has added value since the 2007-2008 financial crisis and calls the Fund's recent efforts in large-scale harvesting of "smart beta" or factor risk premiums an "excellent development… that capitalizes on the Fund's comparative advantages."

They also recommend that the Fund, already one of the most transparent investors in the world, could become even more so by adopting policies to further ensure broad public support and measure the value created at each stage of the investment process.  

The review was conducted by Professor Ang in collaboration with Michael Brandt, the Kalman J. Cohen Professor of Business Administration at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, and David Denison, former president and CEO of the CPPIB. To fulfill its commitment to prudent long-term management, Norway conducts a mandatory independent review every four years. Professor Ang also participated in a previous report on the Norwegian fund in 2009. 

To learn more about the cutting-edge research being performed on the global pension and sovereign wealth fund market, please visit www.gsb.columbia.edu.

About Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School is the only world-class, Ivy League business school that delivers a learning experience where academic excellence meets with real-time exposure to the pulse of global business. Led by Dean Glenn Hubbard, the School's transformative curriculum bridges academic theory with unparalleled exposure to real-world business practice, equipping students with an entrepreneurial mindset that allows them to recognize, capture, and create opportunity in any business environment. The thought leadership of the School's faculty and staff, combined with the accomplishments of its distinguished alumni and position in the center of global business, means that the School's efforts have an immediate, measurable impact on the forces shaping business every day. To learn more about Columbia Business School's position at the very center of business, please visit www.gsb.columbia.edu.

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SOURCE Columbia Business School

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