Swedish pension provider AMF has reported a total return of 7.8% for the full year from January to December 2023. This is an improvement on the 8.6% loss for the previous year, despite a “turbulent year”.
It also reported that its total assets under management grew to SEK790bn from SEK734bn the previous year, with SEK210bn of that managed by its AMF Fonder mutual funds subsidiary and SEK580bn run within its main traditional insurance business.
The solvency ratio slipped to 220% in 2023 from 228% in 2022.
Johan Sidenmark, chief executive officer of AMF, said that despite a “turbulent year” the fund had delivered a “strong” return to its savers.
He said: “The good return made it possible for us to increase the pensions of the majority of our payout customers, which feels good, not least in a situation where we know that many are struggling financially.”
AMF was also able to improve security for its customers during the year by increasing the guarantee for premiums paid to 100%, by introducing a new guarantee enhancement model and by converting SEK9.3bn of accumulated surplus into guarantees.
“AMF remains financially very strong, which is reflected in our continued strong solvency. This gives us good opportunities to continue to invest in important Swedish companies that we believe can contribute to our savers’ returns over time, despite a weak economy and a challenging situation,” Sidenmark noted.
Tomas Flodén, head of asset management at AMF, added: “It feels very good that we can deliver a total return of 7.8%, despite the recession and a troubled world. The positive signals that inflation was slowing laid the foundation for a strong recovery on many stock markets in late autumn.”
He cited listed equities as the strongest performer of AMF asset classes, returning 15.8%. Fixed income and alternative assets delivered returns of 5.4% and 5.2%, respectively.
Flodén added that despite a “very challenging market situation”, AMF’s property portfolio saw a loss of 4.3%, which he attributed to the proportion of quality properties in central Stockholm in the AMF portfolio.
AMF Equity Fund North America was also highlighted as performing particularly strong, beating its benchmark index for the sixth year in a row and returning 26.8%.
AMF Equity Fund Global had a good performance with a return of 20.7%, and AMF Equity Fund Sweden delivered 17.1%.
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