Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Annika Luoto, a hedge fund-focused portfolio manager at Finnish pension insurance company Elo, has joined Finland’s largest pension fund – Keva – as portfolio manager in alternative investments. Luoto has been co-managing Elo’s hedge fund portfolio for the past seven years.
“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Portfolio Manager, Alternative Investments at Keva,” Annika Luoto announced on LinkedIn. She will focus on hedge funds and other alternatives alongside senior portfolio manager Markus Frosterus. Luoto joined Elo, the third-largest of the four pension insurance companies in Finland’s private sector earnings-related pension system, in January 2014 as portfolio manager focusing on FX and money markets. After two years in this role, she went on to co-manage Elo’s hedge fund portfolio for a little more than seven years.
“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Portfolio Manager, Alternative Investments at Keva.”
Both Keva and Elo maintain sizeable allocations to hedge funds, and have increased their exposure to hedge funds in recent years. Keva had 7.2 percent of its €62 billion investment portfolio, or €4.5 billion, invested in hedge funds at the end of 2022. The Finnish pension agency responsible for pensions of public sector workers in state, municipal, and state church positions increased its allocation to hedge funds from under four percent in 2013 to over seven percent in 2022. Keva’s hedge fund investments generated a return of 6.1 percent last year after delivering a return of 17.3 percent in 2021.
Elo’s hedge fund investments accounted for 9.3 percent, or €2.6 billion, of its overall portfolio at the end of 2022. Elo increased its allocation to hedge funds from under four percent in 2011 to over ten percent in 2014 and over 13 percent in 2015. Elo’s exposure to hedge funds decreased in the following years and remained between seven and eight percent during the three years through the end of 2021. The hedge fund portfolio maintained by Elo returned 2.3 percent in 2022.
Photo by Tom Brunberg on Unsplash
