Savings increased on shares – Kommersant

The first quarter turned out to be successful for most of the management companies that manage the pension savings of citizens placed in the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation. The best result was shown by private companies with a high share of shares in portfolios that did not take advantage of the relief from the Central Bank, which allowed to freeze the value of assets for the whole of 2022. However, market participants do not plan to increase investments in shares.

The weighted average profitability of private management companies (MCs), investing the pension savings of citizens who keep them in the Pension Fund, in the first quarter amounted to a little less than 10% per annum, according to Kommersant’s estimates, based on reporting on six portfolios of five management companies, as well as data from two companies who provided them. At the end of 2021, these companies accounted for about 11% of all pension savings managed by 18 private management companies (34.7 billion rubles). The rest of the players refused to disclose the data.

The State Management Company (GUK) VEB.RF earned 7.9% per annum for the “silent ones” within the government securities portfolio during the reporting period, and 8.62% per annum for the extended portfolio. In the 12 months ending March, VEB.RF, as in 2022, overtook private management companies. During the year, the GUK earned 11.3% on the government securities portfolio and almost 11% on the expanded portfolio. During this time, the weighted average return on seven portfolios of six private management companies was less than 9.5%.

In the reporting periods, the spread of indicators for private management companies was very wide, according to the results of the quarter, from a symbolic loss of 0.4% per annum to more than 25% per annum, according to the results of 12 months, all companies showed profit, but from 4.3% to more than 18 %. According to the results of the quarter and year, the growth leaders were the management companies – outsiders of the beginning of 2022, and of the entire year (see “Kommersant” dated April 15, 2022, “Kommersant” dated January 20, 2023) – companies in whose portfolios there were shares. This became possible thanks to the active growth of the Russian stock market since the beginning of this year. During the first quarter, the Moscow Exchange index rose by almost 14%, the strongest quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2015.

Artem Mayorov, director of the asset management department at Ingosstrakh-Investments Management Company, said that the company kept the share of shares in the portfolio at 40%, in accordance with the benchmark – the aggressive index of pension savings of the Moscow Exchange. As a result, the yield for the quarter amounted to 25.6% per annum, for 12 months – 15%. At the same time, the return on a balanced portfolio managed by Agana Management Company (the share of shares at the end of the quarter was about 11%) was 12.5% ​​and 14.4%, on a conservative portfolio (3.9% of shares) – 7.8% and 13.4%. The increase in investments in shares was told to Kommersant in the Criminal Code of the PSB, this allowed the company to show the profitability of investing pension savings for the first quarter in the amount of 18.62% per annum. “The shares of the oil and gas sector and Sberbank made the largest contribution to the growth of the portfolio,” said Andrey Alekseev, asset manager at PSB Management Company.

The worst result – a loss of 0.37% per annum – was demonstrated by Aton-Management Management Company. An analysis of the statements showed that for the entire 2022, most of the securities in the portfolio were accounted for at prices before the start of the CBO. In March, the Central Bank allowed management companies investing pension savings of citizens held in the Pension Fund to use their fair value as of February 18, 2022 when assessing the value of financial instruments. Since then, the Moscow Exchange index, even with growth in the first quarter, has fallen by 28%.

Although managers do not rule out further growth in the stock market, they are not ready to increase investments in these assets. Artem Mayorov noted that the company will keep such investments at the benchmark level of 40%. MC PSB also does not plan to increase the share of shares.

More conservative MCs show no interest in such securities either. In particular, this was stated in Alfa Capital: the current ratio of shares of OFZ and corporate securities of 60/40 there “is still considered relevant for the fund.” Ekaterina Zaitseva, General Director of Region Asset Management Management Company, said that in the medium term she plans to maintain an approach to asset management aimed primarily at limiting risks.

Vitaly Gaidaev