The Church of England’s £8.3 billion (€9.4 billion) investment fund made a “very creditable” but below target return in 2017.
Public equities and the managers “strong” outperformance relative to the market drove the fund’s performance though the return of 7.1%, was below the year’s target of 9.1%.
Its active UK smaller companies manager and global managers performed “particularly strongly” and its emerging markets portfolio also contributed usefully to returns in the equities portfolio, the church commissioners said.
The fund’s investment objective is to generate a return of inflation 5% per annum on average over the long term.
As its private equity portfolio has significantly outperformed quoted equity markets, the commissioners said they wanted to increase the fund’s private equity allocation if suitable managers can be found.
The private equity portfolio returned 7% in 2017 and further commitments to the portfolio totalling £129 million during the year were agreed.
Successful active management by the in-house property team also added to the fund’s overall performance, the commissioners said.
©2018 funds europe
