Welcome to the website of GAC GmbH!
We would like to give you a general picture of the company in the following pages.
The investment year 2022 was characterised by highly dispersed investment results both between and within the investor groups. A high bond ratio in conjunction with a long duration had a particularly negative effect, while a significant real estate and alternatives share had a dampening effect. Traditional life insurance policies (KLV) suffered the most. Here, too, the spread is widest, with results ranging from -37.7% to +0.3% (mean -22%). The unit-linked class (FLV) fared better with around -15%. The largest pension fund achieved a market value return of -12%. The Swiss pension funds fared better, especially due to a high real estate quota (22%) and the significant share of alternatives (10%). The spread of results is also significantly smaller for them. The largest investor in the area of Versorgngswerke performed significantly better.
We were able to identify more than 100 pension funds with billions in assets, more than 40 of which manage investments of at least CHF five billion. Around one-third of the assets are invested in bonds. While the equity exposure has fallen below 30% in 2022, the real estate exposure has further expanded to over 22%. Alternatives (mainly private equity, infrastructure and debt) have been expanded to around 10% in recent years. Performance in 2022 was negative at -9% (previous year +8.5%), with a very wide range of results from -15% to -3%.
The rapid rise in interest rates led to a drop in pension obligations for DAX/MDAX companies by more than a quarter to €372 billion in 2022. As plan assets fell by less than a fifth to €292 billion, the funding ratio jumped to just under 79%. Looking only at the investment side, 2022 was weaker than 2008 at the time of the financial crisis, with an average investment return of around -18%. The LDI approach has led to a weak investment performance, but its goal of balancing assets and liabilities and limiting balance sheet volatility has been met. In asset allocation, bonds have lost significant weight while equities remain in the 20-25% corridor. Real estate and alternatives as well as liquidity gained weight.
Having expanded by a fifth since 2011, the volume of Depot A securities held by the savings banks and cooperative banks rose by less than one billion to 530 billion euros in 2022 and still accounts for a fifth of total assets. At 180 billion euros, special funds cover a third. While savings banks kept the volume of special funds constant at EUR 105 billion, cooperative banks expanded it by EUR 4 billion at the expense of direct bonds. The strong growth of special funds thus almost came to a standstill in 2022, although the rising interest rate level did not lead to any active shift into direct bond investments.
Pension funds for liberal professions achieved an average net return of over 4% in 2021, although this was also due to the release of hidden reserves of individual investors. The transition of the asset allocation continued: In the meantime, only a good 20% is invested in direct bond investments, and another good 20% in bond funds. The share ratio was raised to almost 20% on average. Real estate investments account for almost 22% at the end of 2021, alternatives such as private equity, infrastructure or debt investments for around 16%. This means that almost 40% of the total assets are invested in illiquid asset classes.