​AMF returns 7.1% after boosting equity weighting, switching up real estate

Sweden’s second-biggest occupational pension fund, AMF, reported a 7.1% return for 2024, with the SEK849bn (€76.2bn) group having increased its equities weighting and bought and sold property investments during last year.

The blue-collar pension fund – which provides a traditional with-profits pension product – said in its 2024 results statement this morning that equities had produced a 16.3% gain and alternatives generated a 5% gain.

Tomas Flodén, AMF’s chief executive officer, said: “It feels good that we can give our savers a return of 7.1% during a partly turbulent and chaotic year.”

Even though interest rates had fallen and growth was about to turn around, there was still great uncertainty about the future, he said.

“In this situation, traditional pension insurance is a particularly good form of savings, with good opportunities for risk diversification and with a guarantee at the bottom,” Flodén added.

Katarina Romberg, chief investment officer at the Stockholm-based pension fund, said that within the framework of the firm’s traditional insurance, AMF had good opportunities to invest broadly and work actively on its asset allocation last year.

“In 2024, we increased the proportion of equities in the portfolio, which contributed positively to the return.

“We also carried out several sales and purchases of properties, in order to continue developing this important part of our portfolio,” she said.

At the end of 2024, assets under management (AUM) within traditional insurance had risen to SEK613bn from SEK580bn, with AUM at the unit-linked funds arm AMF Fonder having grown to SEK235.3bn from SEK209bn, according to the figures released.

Flodén and Romberg are both in new roles assumed at the beginning of November, with Flodén having been promoted to CEO from CIO, and Romberg having moved from her job as head of alternative investments at AMF Fonder.

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