France’s Fonds de Reserve pour les Retraites (FRR) has reported a net return of 9.68 per cent for 2023, which it said was driven by a recovery in the stock markets.

Publishing its full-year results, following approval by its supervisory board, FRR revealed that since 1 January 2011, the portfolio's annualised performance has been 3.9 per cent net of all fees, a level well above the 1.1 per cent cost of public debt borne by Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (CADES) over the period, helping to create net value for public finances of €13bn.

Since the end of 2010, FRR's performance assets have grown by 112.8 per cent, while hedging assets have risen by 21.8 per cent.

FRR noted that by June 2022 it had increased the proportion of performance assets in its strategic allocation by 10 points to 70 per cent. In 2023, it has decided to maintain this weighting but to increase high-yield corporate bonds by 5 points at the expense of equities. This high weighting of performance assets contributed significantly to performance in the second half of 2023, it said.

The year 2023 ended with the FRR's assets remaining virtually stable at €21.2bn, after the annual payment of €2.1bn to CADES, thanks to a market effect of €2bn, representing a management performance of +9.68 per cent.

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