Industriens Pension, Copenhagen, Denmark, recorded a 8.2% return for the first half of 2021, driven by the performance of public and private equity, the pension fund said Thursday.
Assets increased 5.4% over the six-month period, to 216 billion Danish kroner ($34.6 billion) as of June 30, the fund's interim report said.
The pension fund's investment performance equated to a 16.3 billion kroner gain.
Figures for the first half of 2020 were not available, but the fund achieved a 9.7% return for the 2020 calendar year, equating to a 5.1 billion kroner gain.
The pension fund's 10-year annualized return was 8.1% as of June 30.
"We have received really good returns from several different asset classes in the first half of the year," CEO Laila Mortensen, said in a news release accompanying the report. "The best-performing asset class has been unlisted equities, where especially American venture funds have really delivered great returns. At the same time, listed shares over a wide range have also been raised by the prospect of good growth in both Europe and the USA."
Ms. Mortensen added that effective vaccine rollouts in Europe and the U.S. created good growth prospects, lifting market sentiment and the valuations of listed and unlisted assets.
The pension fund's largest allocations are public global equities and nominal bonds at 23.8% and 16.6%, respectively. Public global equities delivered a gain of 13% in the six months ended June 30, while nominal bonds lost 2.6%.
The pension fund also invests 12.3% of its assets in private equity, which delivered the largest return of 25.1% in the six-month period.
The pension fund's asset allocation also includes 9.9% emerging markets bonds, 8.7% infrastructure, 8% Danish equities, 5.4% high-yield bonds, 5% real estate, 4.6% other credit and 4.2% investment-grade bonds. The rest of the assets are invested in currency, inflation, interest-rate overlays and other strategies.
In the six-month period, Danish equities delivered a 13.6% return, other credit added 6.6%, while infrastructure gained 5%.
High-yield bonds returned 4.1%, real estate delivered a 1.1% return, emerging markets bond delivered 0.1%, while investment-grade bonds lost 1.5%.
