Irish pension funds invested around 65% of their assets in equities at the end of 2000, according to data from the Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF), which represents a similar percentage to that registered at the end of 1999.
Regarding the geographical allocation of the equity investments, 19% were invested in Irish stocks and 14.6% in other countries in the Euro-zone, making the total exposure to domestic equities of 33.6% of total assets. The US was the country outside the Euro-zone where Irish pension funds invested most assets, representing 13.9% of their portfolios, followed by the UK with 8.3%.
On the bonds side 20% of total assets were invested domestically in Ireland and other Euro-land countries, with investments in foreign bonds accounting only for 1.8%. Most of the investment in bonds went to government-related vehicles, with only 1.4% of total assets going into the corporate bond area.
At the end of December 2000, real estate holdings amounted to 6.4% of total investments, mainly related to investments in Irish property (5.7% of total assets) and only a small proportion going to other countries (0.7%).
Whereas in 1999 the total proportion of assets invested in Ireland accounted for almost 41% of total assets, a year later Irish investments represented 35% of pension fund portfolios.