IRISH company pension funds grew by an average of 17.6 per cent in 1995, according to a survey of 200 occupational pension plans by pension consultants CPMS. The average returns of the five main fund managers which are monitored by CPMS was 17.9 per cent.
CPMS does not give a breakdown of the performance by individual funds. However, Bank of Ireland Investment Managers, with a return of more than 20 per cent, is understood to have headed the list of the five largest funds. Irish Life Investment Managers, in a statement, claimed to be second best performer of the five.
The growth of the 200 funds ranged from 13 per cent to 22 per cent. The disparity, said CPMS, reflects the relative exposure to the US and Japanese markets. Exposure to the US market ranged from 8 per cent to 25 per cent, while exposure to the Japanese market ranged between 0 per cent and 10 per cent.
The funds, however, underperformed in the Irish equity market by 5.3 per cent and the British equity market by 0.8 per cent. The underperformance in the Irish equity market "would appear to be due, at least in part, to an overweight position in Smurfit by a number of the main Irish investment houses", said CPMS. However, the Irish funds tended to perform better away from their home base by outperforming the European and Japanese markets.
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