Second-column progressive funds finish 2016 profitably
Despite having reported deficits in the first half of 2015, almost all progressive pension funds reported a profit at the end of 2016. Most of Estonians’ pension money is invested in these funds.
The difference between individual funds wasn’t great. The best result had been reported by Nordea, whose “A” pension fund grew by more than 4%. LHV, Swedbank, and SEB’s funds were next, with a reported growth of some 3.5% each, ERR’s “Aktuaalne Kaamera” newscast reported.
The fund bought from Danske Bank by LHV last year came in last. The bank is planning to merge it with its own in May this year.
The banks confirmed that they had been faced with a lot of insecurity following the United Kingdom’s referendum to leave the European Union, and the course of the presidential elections in the United States. As neither of the two events had proven to have a serious impact, the funds had recovered in the second half of the year.
Strategies for the new year differ with different banks. Martin Rajasalu of Nordea Pensions pointed out that though by and large, their strategy would be the same as in 2016, a focus would have to be investments, as savings made little sense in a market with interest rates close to 0%. Another point was that there were certain crisis areas that needed to be avoided.
LHV had followed a rather conservative approach over the recent years, Andres Viisemann, in charge of the bank’s pension funds, said. The state of the world hadn’t improved, neither in terms of the political environment nor economically, and he didn’t see assets like stocks and real estate gain much in value.
SEB’s Endriko Võrklaev said that they were moderately optimistic about the outlook of the stock markets, but remained careful considering current developments.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn