FINLAND - The largest Finish pension insurer Varma has posted a 6% return on investments for the first half of this year.
Return on investments was up 4.7 percentage points compared to last year.
"To a great extent, this is down to equities as we are lacking the drop we have experienced in 2006," Varma's chief executive Matti Vuoria explained to IPE.
"But we were also very successful with our alternative investments, particularly hedge funds," said Vuoria.
Varma's equity portfolio has returned 13.1% so far, and this partly offset a negative 0.5% return on the fixed income portfolio.
Vuoria pointed out Varma was still "a good deal" from the 9.4% return posted for the full year 2006 and stressed "equity markets cannot continue like this forever".
That said, he suggested despite increased volatility, results posted by companies around the world look promising.
"We have a very positive view on our performance relative to the market," continued Vuoria.
The market value of Varma's investments at the end of June 2007 was €28.9bn compared to €26.9bn at the end of last year.
And in the first part of the year, Varma handled 12,219 new pension applications - 8.4% more than in the year earlier.
Additional news from the firm reveals the insurer will move into its new offices at Salmisaari in Helsinki next year as its present premises in Annankatu have been leased to the European Chemicals Agency.
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