UN fund increases equities exposure

The $37 billion United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund increased its allocation to equities by 4 per cent in the past quarter, at the expense of real estate and bonds, and is now overweight the asset class, as it continues to support active management.

In its latest quarterly report, the fund acknowledges that through active management it continues to outperform the policy benchmark with effective stock selection and periodic re-balancing.

The total return of the fund for the quarter ended September 30 was 12.3 per cent, vis-a-vis the new benchmark preliminary return of 12.6 per cent.

The fund underperformed the new benchmark preliminary return in the one-year period but outperformed in the three and five year periods.

The fund also has a new benchmark consisting of 60 per cent Morgan Stanley Capital International All Country World Index, 31 per cent Barclays Capital Global Aggregate Bond Index, 6 per cent National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries Open End Diversified Core Index and 3 per cent 91-Day United States Treasury Bill. The old benchmark consisted of 60 per cent Morgan Stanley Capital International World Index and 40 per cent Citigroup World Government Bond Index.

The asset allocation as at September 30 was 63 per cent equities, 30.8 per cent bonds, 3.8 per cent real estate and 2.4 per cent short term.