Previndai, the Italian industry-wide pension fund for companies’ managers, has seen its sub-fund ‘Sviluppo’ record returns of 11% last year through a mix of largely equity investments, but also Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), the scheme said today.
The sub-fund, with assets totalling approximately €1.5bn according to the scheme’s latest financial statement, also invests in fixed income.
Another of Previndai’s sub-funds, ‘Bilanciato’, with assets of around €2bn, invests mostly in fixed income and partly in AIFs and equity, returned 8.2% last year – the second best result among the scheme’s sub-funds, the pension fund noted.
Previndai conducted a review of its strategic asset allocation for the sub-funds ‘Bilanciato’ and ‘Sviluppo’, increasing its exposure to European corporate and government bonds, and inflation-linked bonds.
The other two Previndai sub-funds, ‘Assicurativo 1990’ and ‘Assicurativo 2014’, making up the largest part of the scheme’s total assets, remained resilient, Previndai said, closing 2023 with 2.3% and 2% returns, respectively.
Returns over a five-year period stood at 2.4% for ‘Assicurativo 1990’, 2% for ‘Assicurativo 2014’, 4% for ‘Bilanciato’, and 6.2% for ‘Sviluppo’, the scheme added.
Over a 10-year period ‘Sviluppo’ returned 3.3% net on average per year, with 2.7% for ‘Assicurativo 1990’, and 2.4% for ‘Bilanciato’ – all returning above the level of inflation (1.8% annual average) and the severance pay Trattamento di Fine Rapporto (TFR) of 2.3% average per year.
Assets under management increased year-on-year to €14.5bn at the end of 2023 from €13.71bn in 2022, it added.
Giuseppe Straniero, the scheme’s president, said: “The results achieved in 2023 confirm the solidity of the pension fund and also of its commitment towards its members.”
Previndai caters for 88,000 members, 12,000 companies, with contributions of more than €1bn in 2023, it said.
“From January, we have lowered the costs required to run Previndai, with the levy on the contributions paid going down from 0.55% to 0.45%,” Straniero added.