NETHERLANDS – Dutch healthcare and social service pension fund, PGGM, has announced positive returns of 8% for the second quarter, and 5.9% for the first half of 2003.

With the exception of private equity, all asset categories produced positive results in the second quarter. Equities returned 15%, fixed income 2.5%, commodities 3.5% and real estate 2.1%. Private equity produced negative returns of 0.4%.

Despite the considerably strong returns on equities for the quarter, the negative returns of the first quarter mean that the asset class has produced returns of 6.9% over the first half of the year as a whole. Commodities has been the leading provider of returns, with 9.9% over the first six months.

The five-year return for the fund is now slightly up at 3.5%. The long-term average return since 1970 has been 8.6%.

The fund is now 48.3 billion euros in size, divided as follows:
46.6% in equities
30.6% in fixed income
13.5% in real estate
4.1% in commodities
5.2% in private equity

PGGM is currently working on a recovery plan to strengthen its buffers. It will be submitting these plans to the Pensions and Insurance Supervisory Authority (PVK) in the Autumn.