New Zealand Superannuation Fund, Auckland, on Tuesday reported a 19.2% investment return for 2012, lifting the year-end value of its portfolio to a record NZ$20.92 billion (US$17.6 billion).
With the latest gain, the sovereign wealth fund’s annualized returns came to 11.54% for the past three years, 4.02% for the past five years and 7.92% since inception on Sept. 30, 2003.
In a telephone interview, Catherine Etheredge, a spokeswoman for New Zealand Superannuation, attributed the past year’s hefty gain to the sovereign wealth fund’s substantial allocations to growth assets.
According to an announcement on New Zealand Superannuation’s website, as of Dec. 31, the fund had allocations of 61% to global equities, 9% to fixed income, 8% to infrastructure, 6% each to timber and real estate, 5% to New Zealand equities, 2% apiece to private equity and “other private markets,” and 1% to rural farmland.
Prior announcements from the fund over the past year noted that its “strategic tilting” program — designed to capture medium-term market opportunities — had left New Zealand Superannuation even more overweight in growth assets, while declining to provide exact figures.
