Pension companies curb losses

Managers of mandatory private pensions (pillar II) posted further losses last year, being still in the stage of recouping investments, but their funds registered significant profit increases, according to the data published by pension companies. More than 5 million Romanians contribute to these funds. Half of the ten companies that operated on the mandatory pension market in late 2009 published 2009 financial results. Thus, so far, the only manager to make profit is Aviva, with almost 300,000 RON, after 42m RON losses in 2008. Eureko posted a 14.3m RON loss, BCR’s losses amounted to 9m RON, while Alico’s reached 3m RON and Aegon’s 1.5m RON, with all losses significantly lower than the 2009 ones. Managers’ main source of income is the fees levied to clients. Managers will still register losses for several years, because initial investments were massive, of above 500m euros. On the other hand, funds managed by pension companies were much more profitable last year, owing to the high investment return, of almost 18% on average on the market.