UN Pension Fund Earns 13.7% Over 12 Months

The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund reported a 13.7% investment return for the 12 months ending August 31, raising its asset value to approximately $97.3 billion, according to the UNJSPF’s monthly performance report. Despite the robust gain, the pension fund missed its benchmark’s return of 14.5%.

The pension fund reported 15- and 10-year annualized returns of 7.2% and 6.2%, respectively, as of the end of August, just short of its benchmark’s returns of 7.3% and 6.4%, respectively, during the same time periods. Over the past five and three years, the pension fund returned 7.5% and 2.5%, respectively, compared with its benchmark’s returns of 7.5% and 2.4%, respectively, over the same periods.

Over the longer term, the UNJSPF reported 50- and 40-year gains of 8.8% and 8.7%, respectively, and 30- and 20-year returns of 7.2% and 7%, respectively. Benchmark comparisons for the longer-term returns were not available.

The UNJSPF reported an investment return of 10.53% for the year to September 27. During that period, the pension fund’s public equity investments were by far the top-performing assets, returning 19.46%, with fixed income a distant second with a 4.79% return, followed by a 4.15% return for real assets. The portfolio’s investment cash and Treasury and operation cash returned 4.11% and 4.04%, respectively, while the UNJSPF’s private equity assets gained 2.54%, and its real estate investments lost 1.41%.

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As of September 27, the pension fund’s asset allocation was 44.27% in public equity, 38.18% in fixed income, 8.15% in private equity, 7.27% in real estate, 1.45% in investment cash, 0.41% in real assets and 0.28% in Treasury and operation cash.