The Netherlands’ second-largest pension fund, PFZW, decided late in 2014 to completely exit its $2 billion hedge fund portfolio.
Two months later, after a rapid-fire wind down, the pension fund has exited all hedge funds – and it made a $56 million profit in the process.
From ai-cio.com:
Dutch healthcare sector pension PFZW netted a $56 million profit in two months as it exited hedge funds last year.
PGGM— which manages assets on behalf of PFZW—completed the majority of the liquidation in November and December. PFZW announced last week that it had closed its allocation to the asset class, citing complexity, costs, and sustainability issues.
Ruulke Bagijn, CIO for private markets at PGGM, said her company had raised $2.44 billion from the sale of the hedge fund holdings.
“The successful liquidation process of PFZW’s capital was driven by skilful use of the unique operational infrastructure PGGM has in place, as well as accommodating market circumstances,” she said.
[…]
PFZW’s hedge fund holdings performed in line with expectations and “contributed to diversification of the portfolio”, Bagijn said, but the pension had “a less strong belief in the positive contribution of hedge funds” in the future.
However, Bagijn emphasised that the decision was made by PFZW and would not affect PGGM’s other clients. This is despite Jan Soerensen, PGGM’s head of hedge funds, leaving the group last year.
PFZW manages $185 billion in assets for the country’s health care workers.