State Street Corporation, provider of financial services to institutional investors, announced its WM Universe Dutch Pension Fund results for the first half of 20101. Dutch pension funds, as measured by State Street Investment Analytics, returned 6.4 % over this six month period.
After the very strong equity returns achieved by Dutch funds during 2009 (32.7%), the results produced over the first part of 2010 were modest at 2.8%, behind the MSCI World Index return of 5.9%. By contrast, fixed income investments produced strong returns for Dutch funds with the Universe weighted average return in the category at 12.8%. There was a very wide range of fixed income returns from Dutch pension funds over the six months, partly reflecting the turmoil in European bond markets and the extent of swap usage. The return from property was modest at 2.3%, while the Universe’s other investments, largely alternative strategies, produced a negative result, losing 3.1% in aggregate.
Dutch funds held more of their assets in fixed income instruments at the end of June 2010; 55.2% of total assets as compared to 50.6% at the end of 2009. Exposure to equities, property and other investments all declined.
The fall in interest rates during the first half of 2010 impacted on fund coverage ratios. At the end of June, the average coverage ratio of funds in the Universe was 101.75%, down from 111.04% at the start of the year.
State Street’s Investment Analytics (SSIA) Group provides performance and analytics services and employs more than 600 dedicated investment performance professionals across 15 offices worldwide. SSIA serves approximately 1,400 clients with asset volumes exceeding $7 trillion, (as of June 30, 2010) offering comprehensive services in performance, risk and strategic analysis that help them monitor and measure the success of their investment strategies in any market and in any asset class, including alternative investments.
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