Keva, Finland’s public sector pension fund, reported an investment return of €2.4bn (3.4 per cent) for the first three quarters of 2025, driven by rising share prices but limited by the weakness of the US dollar.

According to its results, the market value of its investments totalled €73.1bn at the end of September, compared with €69.7bn at the same time last year.

The fund’s listed equities returned 8.9 per cent, while real estate investments, including real estate funds, gained 0.5 per cent.

Fixed-income investments rose 0.2 per cent, but private equity investments, including unlisted shares, fell to -0.7 per cent, and hedge fund investments fell to -2.7 per cent.

Over the longer term, performance remained at a good level, with a cumulative capital-weighted real return of 3.9 per cent a year since 1988, and the non-capital-weighted average real return of 4.9 per cent.

Additionally, the non-capital-weighted real return for the past five years has been 3.6 per cent, and for the past 10 years it has been 3.9 per cent.

Commenting on the figures, Keva CEO, Jaakko Kiander, said that Keva’s investment real return was “reasonable” during the year, noting that the rise in share prices has benefited the fund.

However, he highlighted that the weakness of the US dollar this year has had a negative impact on the fund’s investment results, but as a “long-term and financially sound investor”, Kiander said Keva are not sensitive to short-term exchange rate fluctuations.

Keva chief investment officer, Ari Huotari, added that market developments have been quite positive following the turbulence in spring and the rapid weakening of the US dollar.

Recently, however, he said that the actions of the US presidential administration have “stirred growing unease”, and concerns have re-emerged regarding the smaller, less regulated banks in the US banking sector.

Given this, Huotari said that the end of the year may once again prove to be “rather interesting”.

These results reflect broader trends in the European pension market, where many funds saw returns decline earlier in the year due to tariffs introduced by US President, Donald Trump, and the weakening of the US dollar, but are now showing signs of recovery and improved performance.

For example in the Netherlands, several Dutch pension funds have seen increases in their funding ratios in the third quarter of 2025, which they credited to a slight increase in interest rates and good investment results.

Huotari will be replaced by Maaria Kettunen as Keva’s new chief investment officer, effective 1 November 2025.

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