The COVID-19 outbreak brought a difficult period of market volatility and the North East Scotland Pension Fund, like many other investors, saw asset values drops. As at 31 March 2020, the Fund’s asset value decreased by 2.3% to £4.3 billion with a funding position of 103%.

However, a year later and the Fund has reported an asset value of £5.7bn and a funding position of 138%.

The resilience at the outset of the pandemic and subsequent recovery of the Fund demonstrates the effectiveness of NESPF’s investment strategy, outperforming benchmarks across all periods with an annual return of 18.9% against a benchmark of 5%.

Councillor M. Tauqeer Malik, convenor of the Fund’s Pension Committee, said: “I am pleased to announce the strong performance of the Fund.

“The NESPF has a diversified portfolio of assets which helps spread the risk of exposure to any one investment area or stock. This ensured the financial impact on the Fund at the start of the pandemic was minimal and allowed significant growth when investment markets began to stabilise and recover.”

At the Pension Committee meeting last Friday, the committee approved a revised investment strategy that seeks to protect the outstanding performance, providing assurance for all our stakeholders in the value and efficiency of the Fund.