GERMANY - Ärtzeversorgung Westfalen-Lippe (ÄVWL), a €7.8bn regional pension fund for doctors, has withdrawn approximately half of its Spezialfonds investments as it now wants to invest in 'opportunities'.
Andreas Kretschmer, chief investment officer of the fund, told delegate at a pension fund conference in Frankfurt today since the beginning of the credit crisis last year, the fund has halved its 40% allocated to the so-called Spezialfonds, the tax-advantaged vehicles created exclusively for institutions.
He added the fund had done this to protect the fund from further market fluctuations but also stated the fund wants to increase its exposure to ‘opportunities', particularly those in real estate and private equity, in which it is currently underweight.
Kretschmer told IPE the fund wants to allocate around 3% of its assets to real estate in the near future, to get back to its target allocation of around 20%.
Stefan Seip, the director general of the German fund industry association BVI, told delegates today assets in Spezialfonds have decreased from €691.8bn in December 2007 to €676.4bn at the end of August.
He claimed the decrease was in particular because of the "investment weakness of the banks", which have been hit by the credit crunch.
The largest group of investors in Spezialfonds are still insurance operations (42%) and pension funds (12%).
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