The assets under management of Austrian Pensionskassen (PKs; pension companies) stood at € 27.18 billion at the end of the 1st quarter of 2024, and therefore increased by € 800 million or +3.03% over the preceding quarter. In so doing, the Pks for the first time exceeded the record levels as of end-of-year 2021, that stood at € 26.98 billion and therefore needed over two years to at least compensate for the consequences of the multiple shocks and crises. Thereof € 2.33 billion were managed by single-employer Pensionskassen, and € 24.85 billion by multi-employer ones. During the reporting period there were approx. 1.08 million beneficiaries (entitled and recipients) (+1.19% compared to the previous quarter). Of these, 13.54% or approx. 146,000 persons (+0.93%) were already receiving a pension benefit from this form of company old-age provision. This was the finding of the Austrian Financial Market Authority’s “Quarterly Report for Pensionskassen for Q1 2024”, which was published today.
Performance: short-term strong volatility, long-term relative stable.
In the first quarter of 2024, the investment performance that is calculated by the Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB) on a quarterly basis stood at +2.70%, with multi-employer Pensionskassen (+2.76%) performing better than single-employer Pensionskassen (+2.02%). On average over the last three years the performance was +1.39%, over the last five years +2.93%, and for the last ten years +3.29%. A total of eight Pensionskassen were active in the Austrian market, of which five were multi-employer ones and three single-employer ones.
Approximately 95.79% of the assets managed by the Pensionskassen were held indirectly via investment funds. With regard to the different investment categories, the managed assets were predominantly invested in equities (40.52%) and debt securities (33.34%). The remainder was distributed between real estate (6.14%) balances held with credit institutions (5.70%), loans and credits (2.82%) and other assets (11.48%). After hedges, 33.53% of the investment volume is held in foreign currencies.
In 2023, around one quarter of the non-self employed working population (23.39%) already profited from this form of company old-age provision, and at year-end the total assets under management of the Pensionskassen stood at 5.53% of Austria’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The full quarterly report can be found (in German only) on the FMA website at: https://www.fma.gv.at/pensionskassen/offenlegung/quartalsberichte
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik