Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Irish National Pension - Maybe Em. Mgrs. = PE Fund? (Albourne Village)
Pension Fund to diversify mix of assets
posted on Thursday 10 Feb 2005 07:21 GMT
From Irish Independent (subscription required)
According to the Irish Independent, the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) is to switch some of the funds now allocated to bonds and cash to commercial property, infrastructure projects, private equity and commodities.
The value of the National Pensions Reserve Fund rose by 9.3pc last year - compared with a benchmark result of 11.3pc - bringing the total value of the fund to €11.69bn.
The pensions reserve fund was set up to help fund Ireland's pension costs from 2025, particularly pensions for State workers and social welfare recipients.
The fund would have performed better if it had not held over 10pc of its resources in the form of cash at year end. This stemmed from concerns that the bond market would see falls in value as a result of rising interest rates in the US.
Yesterday NPRF chairman Donal Geaney detailed the changes in the way the fund will allocate its investment portfolio to managers over the next five years. Up to 18pc of the fund's value will be invested in property, private equity and commodities by 2009. Approximately 69pc will be held in the form of public equities, with the remainder in bonds. The initial strategy of the fund when it was set up was to have 80pc in public equities and 20pc in government bonds (excluding Irish bonds).
Mr Geaney said the new approach was aimed at increasing the fund's prospective returns without substantially changing its risk profile.
The NPRF says it will invest in public private partnerships (PPPs) in Ireland 'on an opportunistic basis'. Mr Geaney said suitable PPP projects had been slow to materialise. He said that in future the fund would make finance available to winning bidders for projects, rather than joining a consortium itself as it has done in one of the consortia bidding for the M50 upgrade.
The NPRF has ruled out investing in ethical funds and in hedge funds. Mr Geaney said it was impossible to determine which investments were ethical and which were not.
"Can we invest in British Government bonds while that country is at war in Iraq?" he rhetorically asked.
posted on Thursday 10 Feb 2005 07:21 GMT
From Irish Independent (subscription required)
According to the Irish Independent, the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) is to switch some of the funds now allocated to bonds and cash to commercial property, infrastructure projects, private equity and commodities.
The value of the National Pensions Reserve Fund rose by 9.3pc last year - compared with a benchmark result of 11.3pc - bringing the total value of the fund to €11.69bn.
The pensions reserve fund was set up to help fund Ireland's pension costs from 2025, particularly pensions for State workers and social welfare recipients.
The fund would have performed better if it had not held over 10pc of its resources in the form of cash at year end. This stemmed from concerns that the bond market would see falls in value as a result of rising interest rates in the US.
Yesterday NPRF chairman Donal Geaney detailed the changes in the way the fund will allocate its investment portfolio to managers over the next five years. Up to 18pc of the fund's value will be invested in property, private equity and commodities by 2009. Approximately 69pc will be held in the form of public equities, with the remainder in bonds. The initial strategy of the fund when it was set up was to have 80pc in public equities and 20pc in government bonds (excluding Irish bonds).
Mr Geaney said the new approach was aimed at increasing the fund's prospective returns without substantially changing its risk profile.
The NPRF says it will invest in public private partnerships (PPPs) in Ireland 'on an opportunistic basis'. Mr Geaney said suitable PPP projects had been slow to materialise. He said that in future the fund would make finance available to winning bidders for projects, rather than joining a consortium itself as it has done in one of the consortia bidding for the M50 upgrade.
The NPRF has ruled out investing in ethical funds and in hedge funds. Mr Geaney said it was impossible to determine which investments were ethical and which were not.
"Can we invest in British Government bonds while that country is at war in Iraq?" he rhetorically asked.
# posted by Tom @ 5:45 PM 
