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Alaska Permanent Fund Increases 2.1% in First Fiscal 2019 Quarter

Private equity, infrastructure investments bring home the bacon while real estate takes a hit.

By Chris Butera

The $63.9 billion Alaska Permanent Fund gained 2.13% in its September-ending quarter, the sovereign wealth fund announced.

The fund beat its passive index benchmark of 2.06%, as well as the 1.4% objective of its board of trustees. It lagged against the 2.66% metric tracking its asset allocation.

The Alaska fund has, however, outperformed all these benchmarks in the three- and five-year period, where it returned 10.22% and 8.34%, respectively.

The top-performing asset class was private equity/special opportunities, which returned 4.82%. Next was infrastructure/private credit/income opportunities at 3.96%.

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Public equity, which returned 3.18%, saw gains in both domestic and global stocks (5.42% and 4.15% increases in their portfolio sectors), but dragged down by international equities (which fell 0.63%).

The portfolio was rounded out by absolute return (0.85%), fixed income plus (0.65%), asset allocation strategies (0.48%), and real estate, which was the only red asset, at -2.28%.

Angela Rodell, APFC’s chief executive officer, addressed that “diversification and meaningful allocations to private market assets” keep paying off.  

“As the market becomes increasingly volatile, it is more important than ever to remember we invest with a 10-, 25-, 50-year or longer time horizon,” Rodell added. 

The Alaska Permanent Fund’s asset mix at the end of September was 42.6% public equities, 22.5% fixed income plus, 11.9% private equity/special opportunities, 7.2% infrastructure/private credit/income opportunities, 6.1% real estate, 5% asset allocation strategies, and 4.7% absolute return.

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Home > News > Research > Pensions Account for 61% of Top 100 Asset Owners
Research

Pensions Account for 61% of Top 100 Asset Owners

Willis Towers Watson unit ranks the largest funds, with Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund on top.

By Chris Butera

The top 100 asset owners account for more than one-third of all global capital held by their peers, with pension funds holding the largest concentration of money.

At roughly $19 trillion, the 100 largest asset owners hold almost 35% of the world’s $55 trillion assets under management, and nearly 61% of the list’s ranks are pension funds, according to Willis Towers Watson’s Thinking Ahead Institute, which conducted the report.

The top 10 funds in the world are Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund ($1.4 trillion), Norway’s Government Pension Fund ($1.06 trillion), South Korea’s National Pension Service ($582.9 billion), the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board ($531.48 billion), China’s National Social Security Fund ($341.3 billion), the California Public Employees Retirement System ($336.6 billion), the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ($283.4 billion), Singapore’s Central Provident Fund ($269.1 billion), and the Netherlands’ PGGM ($262.2 billion).

In addition to owning 60.8% of all ranking assets, retirement organizations also control 67% of the total funds on the list. The average pension assets accounted for about $170 billion. The average for all funds was  $187 billion.

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The remaining 39.2% of the top 100 asset owners are occupied mostly by sovereign wealth funds (32%), as well as outsourced chief investment officers and master trusts (7.2%).

As for regions, the largest region in assets under management was Asia Pacific (36%), with Europe, the Middle East and Africa (34%), and North America (30%) trailing closely.

Roger Urwin, global head of investment content at the Thinking Ahead Institute, said these large-scale institutions “have little choice but to take their financial and social responsibilities seriously, and not to shirk the big issues” as they are movers and shakers that can influence the global economy.

Urwin also said the top 100 asset owners need to understand the world they operate in over the next decade, meaning they should be “doing more to institutionalize professionalism, streamline operating models, leverage culture and diversity more effectively, and evolve the investment model into increasingly smart and sustainable arrangements.”

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