Dutch pension fund giants ABP and PGGM booked steep losses on their property holdings in 2008 as property markets deteriorated worldwide in the wake of the credit crisis. Civil service pension fund ABP, one of the world's biggest pension funds, posted a loss of 30% on its portfolio while healthcare sector pension fund PGGM suffered a loss of 20.2%.
Dutch pension fund giants ABP and PGGM booked steep losses on their property holdings in 2008 as property markets deteriorated worldwide in the wake of the credit crisis. Civil service pension fund ABP, one of the world's biggest pension funds, posted a loss of 30% on its portfolio while healthcare sector pension fund PGGM suffered a loss of 20.2%.
ABP saw the value of its property portfolio decline by EUR 7 bn to around EUR 15 bn. The figure does not include ABP's stake of around EUR 1 bn in KFN, which was sold to ING Real Estate for EUR 1.6 bn in the first quarter of 2008. ABP's biggest property investments at end-2007 were in Vesteda (EUR 1.56 bn), Corio (EUR 1.3 bn) and Unibail-Rodamco (EUR 1.03 bn). The remaining holdings were in US and UK companies such as Prologis and Land Securities.
PGGM's property holdings, valued at EUR 9.9 bn (13.8% of the total portfolio) generated a total negative return of 20.2% in 2008, compared with a positive return of 3.8% in 2007.
Meanwhile, the pension fund for the electrical engineering sector PME booked a positive return of 1.5% on its property investments, which account for 9& of its total portfolio.
