ATP, Hilleroed, Denmark, posted a 3.6% investment return for the nine months ended Sept. 30, despite drastic declines in financial markets brought on by the spread of the coronavirus pandemic at the start of the year.
An update Thursday said the pension fund's return was equal to 5.2 billion Danish kroner ($817 million) gain over the period, compared with a gain of 36.9 billion kroner for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2019. The investment return in the third quarter was 16.8 billion Danish kroner compared to 7.3 billion Danish kroner in the same period a year earlier. In the second quarter, ATP gained 14.6 billion Danish kroner.
Assets increased 1.97% to 936.1 billion kroner in the three months ended Sept. 30, vs. a 0.3% increase vs. figures as of Sept. 30, 2019. At the end of the third quarter in 2019 assets stood at 933.6 billion Danish kroner.
The fund's asset allocation is split into four risk factors — equity, interest rate, inflation and other risk factors. Returns by risk factor were not available.
"For many years, we have worked with processes and risk management in a targeted manner. This has been a strong contributing factor in allowing us to navigate through the worst crisis on the financial markets in modern times. Even if one should be careful about looking at individual quarters when you are a long-term investor such as ATP, I am satisfied with how we, despite the drastic declines on the financial markets in the beginning of the year, have managed to create positive returns for 2020 so far," Bo Foged, CEO of ATP, said in a news release accompanying the update.
