Despite this recent slump, however, investors across Europe are pushing more of their holdings into commodities. FRR, the €28.1bn French pensions reserve fund, confirmed this month that it is to make its first foray into the market, while the Sainsbury's pension fund has announced that it will commit 5 per cent of its €5.6bn assets to commodities this summer.

Although investors in the Nordic region are also interested in the asset class they are showing reluctance. “Each time we have had discussions about entering commodities, we decide not to do so because of high prices and the fact that they are relatively volatile to market movements,” Eeva Grannenfelt, chief investment officer at the €5.3bn Pension Fennia in Finland, told nrpn.

More important to Nordic funds is private equity. Of the 12 investors to respond to our latest quarterly investor survey (page 14), five said they intend to increase their exposure to the asset class. Four said they will also raise their exposure to hedge funds and five intend to cut into their bond allocations over the next six months.

Just one investor said that it intends to increase its allocation to SRI, but the recent launch of the UN’s Principles for Responsible Investment (see page 32) looks set to stimulate greater interest.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend