Bonus Pensionskasse, the Austrian multi-employer pension fund owned by insurers Zürich and Generali, opted for an underexposure to European and emerging markets (EM) equities, strengthening instead held-to-maturity investments, to improve returns in 2023, according to the scheme’s latest annual report.

The scheme’s performance last year benefitted from reshuffling regional equity allocations, with a more robust weight to global equities, and a lower weight to European and EM equities, compared with the strategy, the scheme said.

The scheme’s equity allocation was kept approximately neutral in relation to its strategic target over the entire year. This had a positive impact on the scheme’s performance resulting from buying stocks in the IT sector in spring and in late summer, it added.

As for its bond portfolio, the scheme gradually increased the duration over the course of the year. It took opportunities given by “attractive return levels” to strengthen its allocation to held-to-maturity investments, considered by the Oesterreichische Kontrollbank as defensive and conservative.

This would reduce sensitivity to performance fluctuations, generating at the same time stable, positive returns in the future, the scheme said. Bonus posted returns of 7.13% in 2023, above the average of multi-employer schemes, which stood at 6.52%.

The scheme targets 38% of its total assets to euro-zone bonds, 28% to equities, 10% to held-to-maturity securities, money market investments and loans, 3% to  global government bonds, 5% to convertible bonds, and 16% to other types of investments, according to its strategic asset allocation (SAA).

Bonus cut its exposure to real estate and commodities. The performance of its real estate investments was negative last year, in line with market developments, but did not impact the overall performance of the scheme, as the asset class has a low weight in its SAA.

The scheme cashed in €52.56m from contributions in 2023, up from €49.53m in 2022. It paid out pension benefits amounting to €56.50m in 2023, compared with €57.53m paid in 2022.

In the last financial year, total assets slightly increased to €1.72bn, up from €1.59bn in the previous fiscal year, while the number of people entitled to benefits rose from 57,373 to 58,471.

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Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

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