The yields of government securities and of corporate bonds aredwindling, which means funds must look to alternatives.
The private pension funds must no longer rely only on investmentsin government securities and corporate bonds, because their yieldswill go down as of next year, with investments on the stock marketbeing an alternative, which should account for at least 20% of thefunds' portfolios, says Mircea Oancea, chairman of the PrivatePension System Supervisory Commission (CSSPP), the authority thatsupervises a market that will reach billions of euros over thecoming years.
"2010 will no longer be a year that will generate sufficient yieldsfrom government securities and corporate bonds as far as funds areconcerned. Investments on the stock market will have to go up to atleast 20% of the assets, because government securities andcorporate bonds' interests will go down, not because the exit fromthe crisis is near, but because NBR's interest rate policy and thestate's need for financing will follow a downward trend," CSSPP'schairman told ZF in an interview.
At the end of August, the more than 440 million-euro assets of themandatory pension funds (pillar II) were 58% invested in governmentsecurities, with corporate bonds accounting for 20% and listedshares for merely 6%. If funds invest at least 20% of their assetsin listed shares in 2010, this means an about 100 million-euroinflow on the Stock Exchange. The pension funds' yield has beenover 15% on the average in the past year.
An alternative to the investments in government securities would beinvestments in infrastructure-based funds, but to do that, oneneeds major projects, Oancea says. Pension fund managers too havebrought up the issue of infrastructure investments.
"To invest in infrastructure, one needs to have major projects, inpartnership with the state or a municipality. The shares or othersecurities issued by infrastructure-based funds must be possible toevaluate in a specific way and freely traded. Aninfrastructure-based fund would not be a Romanian invention; thereare such funds everywhere in the world. Pension funds need to haveat least several tens of millions of euros to invest in such afund."
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
