#Kuwait Pension Fund Had Record Asset Gain, Braces for Volatility - Bloomberg

Kuwait Pension Fund Had Record Asset Gain, Braces for Volatility - Bloomberg

Kuwait’s Public Institution for Social Security had its best performance ever in the first nine months of the fiscal year and said it’s prepared for any volatility in global markets going forward.

The $132 billion pension fund, which owns a quarter of U.S. private equity firm Stone Point Capital LLC, recorded 19.4% growth in assets during the nine months, it said in a statement on Wednesday. Investment profits in the three months to Dec. 31 soared to $6.8 billion, a gain of 44.3% on the previous quarter.

A new management team was brought into the fund in 2017 to transform the state-owned institution after its former head was found guilty of personally profiting from the organization over decades. The fund has since exited more than $20 billion in questionable deals in a major reorganization of its portfolio.

While 2020 witnessed a year of record growth, “it’s expected, in the medium-term, that we witness fluctuations in the international stock markets,” said Raed Al-Nisf, deputy director general for investment and operations. “The executive management follows a conservative and long-term investment strategy capable of absorbing and overcoming market fluctuations.”

PIFSS, as the fund is known, also owns 25% of Oak Hill Advisors and 10% of TowerBrook Capital Partners LP.