Swedish occupational pension company, AMF, made a return of 3.2 per cent for the period January-September 2023, and had a solvency ratio of 231 per cent.

The average annual return over the past five years has been 5.1 per cent and 6.8 per cent over the past 10 years.

Commenting, AMF CEO, Johan Sidenmark, said: “The third quarter of the year has been turbulent, and high interest rates and an increasingly weak economy continue to put pressure on households and businesses.

“In this tough situation, it feels good that AMF is financially strong, that we have a well-diversified, long-term oriented portfolio with a good spread of risk and that we can deliver a positive total return to our four million savers at the end of the third quarter.”

Sidenmark said that during the year AMF has been able to raise the guarantee for premiums paid to 100 per cent, introduced a new guarantee reinforcement model and converted SEK 9.3bn of accrued surplus into guarantees.

“The traditional pension administration has a good ability to deliver a competitive outcome regardless of the state of the economy, but the advantages of being able to invest broadly, spread the risks and keep the fees low become particularly noticeable in troubled times, as we are now showing,” he said.

Among individual asset classes, AMF said listed equities were the strongest performers, but the alternative part of its portfolio also performed strongly, and its fixed income assets had a positive return.

AMF head of asset management, Tomas Flodén, said: “We are in a much better position than we were just a year ago. At the same time, it should be noted that the upward trend on the stock market was broken in August, and that the decline intensified after the end of the period, in the wake of growing concern about a more prolonged high interest rate situation.

The future development is still very uncertain, but there is a tangible risk of continued volatility due to the uncertain economic situation and the tight monetary policy. In light of this, we have a somewhat lower than normal risk exposure in the portfolio and we are of course prepared to take measures to secure the best possible outcome for our savers in this challenging market situation.”

During the period, the management cost for traditional insurance amounted to 0.12 per cent. Premium income amounted to SEK 18.8bn. Premiums for unit-linked insurance, reported as deposits to investment agreements, amounted to SEK 2.4bn. The solvency ratio amounted to 231 per cent.

Within AMF Fonder's equity and fixed income funds, the managed capital amounted to SEK 192bn. The AMF group, which consists of the parent company AMF, AMF Fastigheter AB and AMF Fonder AB, manages a total of SEK 755bn.

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