Stichting Pensioenfonds Mars has significantly increased its investments in hedge funds over the past year, while listed equities were largely sold, according to Pensioen Pro, IPE’s sister publication.
As per the pension fund’s latest annual report, the fund has long had a relatively large exposure to alternative investments such as hedge funds and private equity, due to the diversification and illiquidity premium offered by these investment classes.
The scheme, which invests €1.5bn on behalf of 4,500 members, significantly increased its investments in hedge funds once again in 2025. These nearly doubled from 11% to 21%. The increase was achieved by raising existing investments in two funds-of-funds.
A new allocation was also made to a passive mandate, a portfolio of investment-grade government and corporate bonds. The fund opted for these adjustments due to the low sensitivity of these mandates to the equity and credit markets.
Investments in listed equities were largely sold: the allocation fell from 14% to 5%. This also applied to investments in high-yield bonds (from 7% to 4%) and emerging market bonds (from 11% to 4%).
Coverage protection
Investment manager and board member Rianne Steenbergen said that the desire to protect the scheme’s funding ratio ahead of the transfer to the defined contribution (DC) system, which the fund postponed to 1 January 2028, was one of the main reasons for the changes to its portfolio.
At the end of July, the current funding ratio of the Mars fund stood at 138%.
Steenbergen said the portfolio is specifically structured to absorb shocks in financial markets and to keep the accumulated funding ratio stable leading up to the transfer.
“At the same time, we want to retain room for controlled capital growth to further build up the solidarity reserve,” she said, adding that its hedge fund managers have “a proven track record” of achieving the objectives of “solid return, low volatility, low correlation with public markets, and downside protection”.
