Norway’s Oslo Pensjonsforsikring’s (OPF) long-term investment return is almost 1 per cent higher than its competitors, analysis has revealed.

For the period 2004-2022, OPF’s return is on average, 0.93 per cent higher than other companies that deliver public occupational pensions, analysis by the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) has revealed.

“First of all, we are very proud of these results,” OPF managing director, Lars Haram, commented. “Our purpose is to keep pension costs down for our customers and Oslo municipality, which is our owner. With a good return over time, we have succeeded in precisely this.”

The analysis was carried out by NHH postdoctoral fellows, Andreas Ørpetveit and Andre Wattø Djuve, on behalf of the Pension Office. In their report, they consider how risk-taking affects the investment returns of the pension funds.

“OPF has a long-term strategy and is solid. We have systematically built up a buffer capital that gives us the ability to take risks and we have invested well both on and off the stock exchange, such as in unlisted shares and property. The company's financial buffer gives room for manoeuvre so that OPF can continue to deliver high returns and withstand troubled times, also in the future,” Haram said.

“Over time, a good return means a lot. In the past 10 years, higher returns have produced many billions of NOK in extra returns at OPF compared to the best among other life insurance companies. This is shown by our own internal measurements. The extra return has enabled us to both build a buffer and at the same time give a good allocation to the prize fund.”

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