NETHERLANDS - The €14.3bn pension fund for Dutch electronics giant Philips has managed to keep its coverage ratio at 111% during the third quarter, returning 6% on investments over the period.

Pension officials said that, because 55% of the scheme's participants are pensioners, it has placed 73% of its assets in a liability-matching portfolio consisting of fixed income investments, which returned 5.9% due to dropping interest rates.

Its return portfolio, which contains the remaining assets - equity, property, hedge funds and commodities - returned 6.5%.

According to the scheme, the portfolio's return fell 0.3 percentage points short of its benchmark due to "disappointing" returns from high-yield bonds and private equity.

Officials added that worldwide equity and property were the main contributors to the performance of the portfolio.

The pension fund also indicated that it was still looking into the specific effects of the latest longevity predictions of the Actuarial Society for its population.

The scheme has 16,560 active participants, 32,900 deferred members and approximately 60,300 pensioners.
 

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