Dutch pension fund APG shared insights on long term investment today during a press conference in Guangzhou, China, indicating its long-term investment oriented strategy and highlighting its partnership with China’s E Fund.
E Fund and APG has made an agreement to develop a long term strategic alliance since they signed the LOI this June (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-e-fund-signs-loi-130700640.html). The two leading asset management institutions in China and Netherlands are currently leveraging on each other’s expertise by exchanging information in the areas of pension administration, asset management and ICT.
Ronald Wuijster, Chief Client Officer of APG Asset Management, says APG keeps its eyes closely on China’s pension reform, and it isglad to see the blooming opportunities that is brought to the China market. He looks forward to strengthening the communication with E Fund.
During the conference, Wuijster points out how investors allocate assets under a low interest rate circumstance. Areas like the United States, Europe and Japan have been conducting quantitative easing as their monetary policies since the financial crisis in 2008. Though the economy has bounced back gradually, the side-effect of QE has created a worldwide low interest rate phenomenon; negative interest rates have affected a few countries as well.
In response to that, Wuijster thinks investors should diversify their assets in different markets, either globally or domestically, to ensure the dynamic of their investment. When facing factors like debt crisis and demographic change that affect the global economy, he also suggests investors to constantly adjust their allocation between different areas within varied asset classes.
From a long-term investing perspective, Wuijster mentions that real assets like real estate and infrastructure can also be the investing options, but investors need to be aware of the risks and learn to manage them.
Regarding China’s situation where the 13th Five Year Plan is in progress and has navigated “Green Economy” as its future direction in early 2016, investors are also paying more attention to it.
In response to that, Claudia Kruse, Managing Director of Sustainability & Governance of APG Asset Management, addresses the significance that environmental, social and corporate governance can bring to investments. She says, ESG factors have been included to all APG’s investing asset classes, investing process and standards, which have contributed to APG’s continued outperformance during the past years.
