Dutch civil service pension scheme ABP has released its second quarter operating statistics, revealing its coverage ratio remained at 112% in the three months to June – unchanged from the previous quarter.

The value of the current and future pension benefits that ABP must pay out rose by €3 billion to €217 billion. Assets were worth €242 billion at the end of June.

At the same time last year, assets sat at €218 billion, while liabilities were €229 billion.

Return on investments over the second quarter amounted to 0.8%, or €1.9 billion. The return for the first half of 2011 as a whole came to 1.7%, or €4 billion. ABP said that “by far” most building blocks of the portfolio made a positive contribution in the first half.

However, in commentary accompanying the results, ABP said that not all building blocks made a positive contribution in the second quarter. Negative returns were seen primarily in the ‘real assets’ category. Returns on fixed income were positive in the second quarter.

Commenting on the result, vice-chair Joop van Lunteren, said: “…in an increasingly turbulent financial market, ABP has only been able to achieve a small positive return on the investments, and the coverage ratio has remained stable in the second quarter.”

Due to positive returns in the second quarter, the nominal cumulative return on ABP’s portfolio remained the same, at 7%. The cumulative real return amounted to 4.9%. ABP said this is more than 1.6 percentage points higher than the prudent real return used for calculation in establishing the pension premium.

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