PFA Pension, Copenhagen, posted a 6.3% gross return on its investments in the three months ended March 31, boosted by the performance of its equity portfolio and the prospect of COVID-19 lockdowns easing.
An update Thursday said the Danish pension company's gain was equal to 10 billion Danish kroner ($1.6 billion) for the three months, compared with a 33 billion kroner loss for the same period a year ago.
PFA did not disclose the size of its portfolio as of March 31. The spokesman said the company's assets will be published at the end of June. As of Dec. 31, PFA's assets stood at 730.1 billion kroner.
For the three months ended March 31, the largest return by asset class was in listed equity, which gained 5.9% vs. a 17.7% loss for the same period in 2020.
The bond allocation returned -1.9% for the three months ended March. 31, compared with a loss of 2.5% for the same period in 2020.
Alternative investments added 1.6% compared with -10.8% return a year earlier.
Real estate returned -1.6% in the three months compared with -1.6% for the same period in 2020.
"The past year was extreme in every way. However, even though the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging, the ongoing vaccine rollout has created hope that we can soon reopen society and return to normal everyday life," Kasper A. Lorenzen, group CIO, said in a news release.
"That optimism drove the equity markets significantly in the first three months of the year," he added.
Mr. Lorenzen said that increasing interest rates and the prospect of growing inflation is a new risk for investors to focus on, vs. the COVID-19-related lockdowns and vaccine developments that set the agenda in 2020.
