The Russian invasion of Ukraine is now over a month old. We look with horror at the terrible events. Our sympathy goes out to all Ukrainians, both there and in the Netherlands. The impact of the war on the country and its inhabitants is of course enormous. However, we are also considering the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on our fund.  With regard to the management of our ASP plan, we have taken a closer look at the impact on the plan and your investments.

A lot of movement in the financial markets

The contribution in the ASP plan is invested. We do this in shares and bonds. One of the consequences of the conflict is that the financial markets are in turmoil. Stock market prices fall and gas and oil prices rise, causing inflation to rise further.

Direct impact

The investment portfolio is spread as widely as possible. For example, we have a small part of our investment portfolio (only 0.4%) in Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian investments. These investments are currently not liquid and in a negative outcome this could lead to a total loss. Of course we follow the rules regarding the EU sanctions.

Focus on the long term

Global equity markets are showing negative returns due to the war in Ukraine. We see that short-term developments, such as this crisis, often have less influence in the longer term. We also saw this, for example, at the start of the corona crisis. The sharp fall in share prices at the beginning of 2020 was more than made up for in 2021. Of course, we cannot make any predictions about the effects of the current situation. The investment portfolio of Mars Pension Fund had already been structured more defensively in connection with the good coverage ratio. As a result, the total return in 2022 has been negative so far, but comparatively limited. At the same time, the interest rate has risen, with the result that the valuation of the pension liabilities has fallen more sharply than the value of the investments, so that the funding ratio has even risen slightly

 

No need to adjust policy

We are keeping a close eye on the situation in Ukraine and the unrest in the financial markets. With our eye on the long term, we do not yet see any reason to adjust our investment policy. If this changes, you can read about it on our website.