Nils Kortleve at PGGM was keen to involve the Dutch healthcare and social welfare sector fund in the IPE awards as soon as he heard about them.
“They represented an ideal opportunity for us to explain some of the major changes we had been making in terms of the risk management of our asset allocation,” he says.
The E53bn fund surprised analysts earlier this year when it opted to change the mix of its asset holdings, most significantly moving into commodities and hedging currency. “We were the first to move into commodities, and this has improved the long term prospects of higher returns, and also has resulted in a better risk profile linked to our liabilities, and obviously benefits fund members,” says Kortleve.
Many thought at the time that this move would have a trickle down effect across smaller and medium size funds which often track policy changes at larger holdings such as PGGM. Kortleve confirms this has been the case saying: “Since our own move we have seen a number of funds moving into commodities.”
The decision to hedge currency risk is also another significant feature of the fund, resulting in a lower overall risk profile, allowing investment in higher yielding assets such as private equity.
“We are one of the few funds to opt for this policy moving our hedge from 50% to 100%. We would aim to hold around 7.5% of total assets in this manner, but at the moment it is around 6% or E3bn.
“Once again we are beginning to see other members of our peer group following suit,” Kortleve confirms.
As one of the larger European funds, PGGM has access to a larger research budget, and such internal research confirms the fund as something of a trend-setter. Its decision to increase its private equity holding is another
example of this. “I think one of the other points which will have influenced the judges is the fact that we have moved to a Europe-wide portfolio,” says Kortleve.
Speaking about the awards, Kortleve believes they may lead to an interchange of ideas, and particularly be helpful to the smaller funds.
“It is an excellent initiative from IPE and we look to taking part over the years ahead,” he says, adding: “It should stimulate European pension funds to share information about the way they work and be more open about their policy.”

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