Morten Schou, CIO at the fund, told nrpn that PBU’s present exposure to PE was less than 1 per cent of its total portfolio. “As a start, we intend to increase this up to 3 per cent of total holdings,” he said.

While the fund’s move into PE is likely to take place over the mid-term, diversification into other alternative asset classes, such as hedge funds, has so far been ruled out. “Until now we have ignored all kinds of hedge funds because we do not see much value in them,” said Mr Schou.

Over the coming year the fund will also further expand its foreign equity portfolio. At present, PBU invests approximately one third of its assets in foreign equities.

“All our equity holdings are foreign, which is quite rare for a Danish pension fund. However, we do not consider the Danish equity market any different from other equity markets from a strategic point of view,” explained Mr Schou.

In its investments, PBU has adopted an SRI policy, which focuses on the ethics of managers rather than individual companies. “We prefer not to look at investments individually, company by company and country by country. Instead, we look at our managers and evaluate their ethics and values. If these are in line, or close to our own beliefs, the managers are accepted,” said Mr Schou.

RC

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