•The survey covered 423 schemes and assets under management totalling Sh1.059 trillion.
•It provides valuable insights into the performance of retirement schemes in Kenya's financial landscape.
Retirement Schemes’ median return slightly edged down in the second quarter of this year, an industry survey now indicates, impacted by lower fixed-income performance due to rising interest rates.
This, even as industry trends showed positive impact of offshore investments on retirement schemes' performance.
According to financial services firm–Zamara Group’s Zamara Consulting Actuaries Schemes Survey (Z-CASS) report for the second quarter of 2023, retirement schemes’ median return was at 0.2 per cent, down from 0.9 per cent in March.
The survey, covering 423 schemes and assets under management totalling Sh1.059 trillion, provides valuable insights into the performance of retirement schemes in Kenya's financial landscape.
“The second quarter performance was affected by lower fixed income performance due to rising interest rates, which had a negative impact on bond valuations,” the survey indicates.
Fixed Income performance during the quarter was 0.8 per cent down from 2.6 per cent in March.
The average allocation for Fixed Income was 78 per cent, showing a slight increase from 76 per cent in the previous quarter.
The survey profiles schemes into categories based on their asset allocation.
Aggressive schemes (schemes with a higher proportion of assets invested in Equity and Offshore asset classes) had a median return of 1.6 per cent compared to a 0.2 per cent return for schemes with a lower allocation (schemes with a conservative risk profile).
“We have noted a steady reduction in the number of aggressive Schemes over the past few years because of a preference for fixed income allocation among the participating schemes,”the group said in a statement.
The offshore performance was 16.0 per cent, 41.9 per cent, 13.2 per cent and 14.2 per cent for the quarter, one year, three year and five-year, respectively.
This year, there has been a positive performance in the offshore asset class on account of the strengthening of the dollar against the shilling.
Typically when investors invest outside their domestic market, they encounter dual avenues of potential gain, thus the increase in value of foreign currencies and the performance of the particular investment they have engaged in.
In the context of Kenyan retirement schemes, their offshore investments have predominantly comprised equities within advanced global markets.
Participating Retirement Schemes recorded strong performance with a median return of 6.6 per cent over the one year ending June 30, compared to 0.8 per cent in June 2022.
“Performance in 2023 was driven by the improved performance across all asset classes, although the equities still showed negative performance,” Zamara noted.
Participating retirement schemes recorded an annualised median return of 7.6 per cent over the three years and 7.5 per cent over the five years.
In contrast to a similar period, this average has exhibited a downward trend due to the continuous negative equities performance and high-interest rates, which has resulted in negative fixed-income returns.
Schemes were, however, able to comfortably beat inflation over the periods, according to the report, with inflation at 6.8 per cent over the three years and 6.2 per cent over the five years.