The Canton of Zurich Pension Fund in July plans to invest 2% of its 19.4 billion Swiss franc ($16 billion) plan in an indexed commodities strategy, said Daniel Gloor, head of asset management. The investment will be increased to 4% by the end of 2007. The strategy, which will probably track the Dow Jones AIG Commodity index, is intended to hedge against inflation and further diversify the fund's overall portfolio, Mr. Gloor said.
The fund also will increase its private equity exposure from about 1% of assets to 4% by 2009, he said.
Funding for both strategies will likely come from cash, which was 23.9% of plan assets as of Dec. 31.
