Reaction to the development of the stock markets
16 April 2025The import tariffs announced by the United States caused declines on the stock markets. Many reports about this appeared in the news last week. We can imagine this raises questions. We diversify our investments As a pension fund, we invest our assets. The aim is to achieve a good pension for our participants. The recent stock market declines therefore also partly affect the assets we manage. But we spread the investments across different asset classes and in different countries and sectors. This is how we reduce the risks. We invest partly in shares Part of the assets (approximately 34% on March 31, 2025) are invested in shares. The return on shares was more than 25% in 2024. Share prices have fallen by about 15% as of April 10, 2025. In addition to share prices, we also invest in other asset classes. They are now showing hardly any decreases or even slight increases. This will provide some cushioning of the current losses on the equity portfolio. It is important to know that we invest for the long term. In the short term, the stock markets can fluctuate. In the long term, investing in shares generally leads to higher returns. We follow the developments The social partners have made agreements about the transition to the new pension scheme as of January 1, 2026. In the transition plan agreements and calculations have been made of various scenarios that take into account various factors, including falls in the stock markets and the level of the funding ratio. We will continue to monitor the developments closely.