Finnish earnings-related pension provider Varma has reported a 7.5 per cent return on its investments for 2025, down from 10.2 per cent for 2024.

Its investments generated €4.8bn over the year, bringing its total assets under management to €68.3bn, up from €64.4bn.

The pension company said a historically good year on the Helsinki Stock Exchange made Finnish equities the best-performing asset class in Varma’s investment portfolio.

“It was a good year for investors. There were many geopolitical uncertainties, but in the end, the impact of import tariffs imposed by the United States, for example, on market development was minimal. Finnish equities performed encouragingly well after a few lacklustre years,” Varma CEO, Risto Murto, said.

Broken down by asset class, listed shares yielded 16.4 per cent and private equity investments delivered -0.6 per cent. The return on all equity investments was 10.6 per cent, and 36.2 per cent for Finnish shares.

Fixed income investments made a 4.1 per cent return while hedge funds generated a 5 per cent return. The return on real estate investments was 1 per cent.

“The strong rise in the Finnish stock market and sluggish economic growth created an exceptional contradiction in 2025. The stability of international economic growth and the recovery of nearby markets raise hopes that this time the markets will price the economic turnaround correctly,” Murto said.

At the end of 2025, Varma's solvency ratio was 135.7 per cent, up from 134.6 per cent, and its solvency capital was €18.2bn, up from €16.8bn the previous year.
At the end of the year, Varma had 348,000 pension recipients and paid a total of €7.7 billion in pensions.

The total payroll of Varman's TyEL customers grew by 3.5 per cent during the year. It attributed the stronger-than-average growth in total payroll in the employment pension sector to successful customer acquisition.

A net amount of €105m in TyEL insurance premiums was transferred from other pension companies, and TyEL insurance sales to new customers amounted to €54m. The corresponding impact on YEL insurance premium income was €26m.

Varma’s operating expenses totalled €78m, a decrease of six per cent, or €5m, from the previous year.

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