IRELAND - A 25% drop in the value of Irish managed pension funds over the 12 months to the end of September 2008 has had "a significant impact" on medium-term results, Attain Consulting has claimed.

Figures from the firm's survey of 13 managed funds showed the average negative return of -8.3% in September was "one of the worst monthly returns in decades", as it highlighted the impact of the collapse in equity markets and the ongoing credit crisis.  

The best performing funds in September were Davy and Zurich albeit they delivered a negative return of -6.7%, closely followed by Canada Life with a negative yield of -6.9%, although Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM) and New Ireland stil managed to perform above the average with negative returns of -7.3% and -7.8% respectively.

In contrast, survey results showed Acorn Life was the worst performer with a return of -9.9%, although Hibernian Life also posted a poor result of -9.5%, while Friends First was only just ahead with a yield of -9.4%.

Over the year to September 2008, the same funds were in the top three performers, albeit Canada Life topping the table with a negative return of -17.6%, followed by Zurich's -19.5% and Davy's negative yield of -19.8%.

The average negative return for the year-to-date for all 13 funds was -22.1%, while the average for the 12 months to September 2008 was -25.4%, which Attain Consulting claimed had impacted the medium-term results of the pension funds and reduced their returns to -3.8%.

Again Zurich was the best performer with a result of -1.1%, the closest any of the funds got to positive figures, however the returns over both five and 10 years are more positive with an average of 3.6% and 3.1% respectively.

However, the gains over five years are more impressive with returns ranging from Zurich's 6.1% to the lowest return from Davy of 1.6%, while over the last decade returns varied from the 5.2% posted by Oppenheim to the 1.6% average return from KBC Asset Management.

The figures published by Attain Consulting support earlier data issued by both Hewitt Associates and Rubicon Investment Consulting, which both revealed a 25% drop in the value of Irish pension funds in the last year. (See earlier IPE article: Irish managed values drop a quarter in 12 months)

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