Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Sampsa Ratia has been promoted to Varma’s newly created role of Head of Real Assets after serving as the pension fund’s Head of Real Estate for one and a half years. In this newly created position, Ratia will be responsible for managing Varma’s real estate and infrastructure investments.
“Happy to share that starting from the beginning of the year I have taken on a new position as Head of Real Assets at Varma,” Sampsa Ratia (pictured) announces on LinkedIn. “The combining of real estate and infrastructure investments in the same bucket is a solid example of Varma’s continued efforts to improve processes and streamline operations,” he elaborates. “Delighted to be a part of the journey.”
“The combining of real estate and infrastructure investments in the same bucket is a solid example of Varma’s continued efforts to improve processes and streamline operations.”
Sampsa Ratia joined the Finnish pension fund Varma in August 2021 as the investment director in charge of real estate investments. He joined Varma from real estate management company Avant Asset Management. He previously also worked as the group CEO of property management company Corbel and as Head of Asset Management at Aberdeen Asset Management in Finland.
About ten percent of Varma’s €56.7 billion investment portfolio was allocated to real estate investments at the end of June 2022. In addition to the €5.6 billion in real estate investments, Varma also had €9.1 billion allocated to hedge funds. Varma’s direct real estate investments returned 1.9 percent in the first half of 2022, while the return on real estate investment funds reached 6.3 percent. Its portfolio of hedge fund investments returned 4.5 percent, significantly compensating for the weak performance of listed investments.
