Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Annika Luoto has joined pension insurance company Ilmarinen as senior portfolio manager, following a brief tenure of just over a year as a portfolio manager specializing in hedge funds at Finland’s largest pension fund, Keva. Prior to her time at Keva, Luoto spent seven years in a similar role at the smaller pension insurance company Elo.
“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Senior Portfolio Manager at Ilmarinen,” Annika Luoto announces on LinkedIn. Luoto’s return to Ilmarinen brings her career full circle, as she started her career at the pension insurance company as a trainee in 2007, later advancing to a risk analyst role. She then moved to Tapiola Pension as a portfolio manager specializing in foreign exchange and money markets. Following the 2014 merger of Pension Fennia and LocalTapiola Pension to form Elo, Luoto continued in a similar capacity at Elo. In early 2016, she transitioned to a portfolio manager role focused on hedge funds, a position she held for over seven years before moving to Keva in early 2023.
“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Senior Portfolio Manager at Ilmarinen.”
At Keva, Luoto served as a portfolio manager in alternative investments, working alongside senior portfolio manager Markus Frosterus, with a focus on hedge funds and other alternatives. She is expected to take on a similar role focusing on hedge funds at Ilmarinen, which manages a hedge fund portfolio of €5.2 billion as of the end of the first quarter. Partly influenced by the low-interest-rate environment, Ilmarinen has significantly ramped up its allocation to hedge funds, growing from under two percent in late 2017 to 8.6 percent by the end of 2023.
Keva also maintains a sizeable hedge fund portfolio, valued at about €4.7 billion or about 6.9 percent of its overall investment portfolio as of the end of the first quarter. 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. However, the percentage allocation dipped below seven percent in the first quarter of 2024.
