Grim first quarter for the Finnish pension insurers

The Finnish big four: Ilmarinen, Varma, Elo and Veritas, all reported losses from the first quarter citing the nervousness on the market, tightening monetary policy and geopolitical and trade policy worries as the reasons for the bad performance in the first quarter.

All of the four said the bad performance of the equity market was the main culprit for their losses. The chief investment officer at Elo, Hanna Hiidenpalo, said that despite the demanding conditions, the equity market has “kept up rather well”. The insurer’s investments yielded -0.4 per cent in the first quarter with its listed equities returning -2.0 per cent, worse than any other asset class in the pension company’s EUR 23.3 billion portfolio. Elo’s private equity portfolio, on the other hand, brought a 3.1 per cent return and its unlisted equities returned 2.2 per cent. They were the two