82% of investors satisfied with performance during COVID-19
Over 80% of global investors were satisfied with how their portfolios had performed in 2020 so far, according to bfinance.
Bfinance’s ‘Asset Owner Survey’ found that active strategies received positive feedback but 53% of emerging market debt investors, 48% of hedge fund investors, and 64% of alternative risk premia investors were dissatisfied with their results.
The survey received responses from 368 investors of which 34 were Australian. The majority of these were superannuation funds, along with insurance companies and endowment trusts.
Bfinance Australian senior director, Frithjof van Zyp, said while 41% of Australians were dissatisfied with their direct property portfolio performance relative to benchmarks and targets, this was noticeably lower for global respondents at 23% being dissatisfied.
On positioning portfolios going forward, 11% of Australian respondents indicated being overweight risk assets, while 46% were not taking a tactical view of risk assets (i.e. rebalanced to usual weights), and 43% were underweight risk assets. Globally, respondents were less cautious than the Australian investors with 19% overweight risk assets, 52% not taking a tactical view, and 29% underweight risk assets.
Globally, portfolio changes anticipated through 2020 would see more exposure to private markets and lower exposure to public equities. There would also be a swing away from fixed income with 23% looking to reduce exposure compared to 12% looking to increase, most notably a reduction in sovereign debt exposure.
“It’s also interesting to note that 37% of super funds indicated having either already changed their strategic/long-term asset allocation since the onset of the pandemic, or expecting to do so before the end of 2020. The response from pension funds globally sat lower at just 25%,” van Zyp said.
“The sudden introduction of the super early release scheme will have likely further contributed to super funds having to rethink their strategic asset allocations.”
The survey also found that 82% of Australian respondents said that environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations were either very important or moderately important to setting investment strategies and implementation, compared to 78% of its global counterparts.
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