PPB, the €1.2bn industry-wide pension fund for the private security sector, said it halted further investments in private equity and infrastructure last year, pending the conclusions of an asset-liability management study (ALM).
In its annual report, the fund suggested that ”modest economic growth as well as a declining number of buy-out transactions last year” had contributed to its decision to stop investing further.
Its 2% allocation to globald private equity – both through funds and directly in companies – generated almost 18%, according to the scheme, which said that by far the largest part of its performance-related fees were paid for investments in the asset class.
PPB attributed the 13.4% return on its 2.4% infrastructure portfolio largely to a revaluation of its investments.
It added that it was also reconsidering the management of its 1.2% private property by Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance (SAREF), explaining that it had serious difficulties disposing of its holdings. The plans to sell the assets came as the portfolio delivered a return of 5.8% last year.
The private security scheme indicated that it also wanted to divest its stake in commercial mortgages, which were also managed by SAREF.
The asset class produced almost 4.7%, whereas private mortgages generated 8.2% last year.
The pension fund, which has 56,000 participants in total, posted a 17.9% return, with euro-denominated government bonds and equity generating 11.4% and 11% respectively.
Credit and inflation-linked bonds returned 8.5% and 5.7% respectively.
PPB further said that it had extended its contract for pensions provision with Syntrus only after it had negotiated “increased transparency, better quality as well as lower costs”.
The scheme reported administration costs of almost €122 per participant. Costs for asset management and transactions were 0.43% and 0.07% of asset under management respectively.
In 2014, it had hedge a quarter of its interest risk on liabilities through government bonds and interest swaps.
Its currency hedge fully covered developed markets and 70% of the most important reserve currencies, and had contributed €11.7m to returns, it said.
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