Austria pension fund relies on real estate and infrastructure investments

VBV-Pensionskasse, Austria’s largest pension fund with €6.7 billion ($7.6 billion) of assets under management, reported an average investment income of –5.5 percent at the end of 2018, after +7.4 percent in the previous year.

“VBV-Pensionskasse was able to mitigate the negative effects through professional asset management,” said Günther Schiendl, member of the VBV pension fund management board responsible for the investment. “In addition, over the past few years, the VBV Pension Fund has achieved above-average investment results in a sector comparison and has built up corresponding fluctuation reserves. These ‘upholstery’ are filled in positive investment years to compensate for any fluctuations in exceptional cases as possible.”

The VBV-Pensionkasse has increasingly relied on real estate, private markets and infrastructure investments in recent years due to the increasingly high volatility of equity and high-yield corporate bonds.

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