Archive of posts from Saba-News.com Archive Saba News
Pension Fund Caribbean Nederlands (PCN) today has founded the so called Participatiemaatschappij Caribisch Nederland (PMCN) at the office of Notary Public, Kenneth Arends.
PCN wants to use the investment company to give shape to its local investments. “For strategic reasons, we have chosen to set up a local investment vehicle”, according to PCN chairman Harald Linkels. With PMCN we can purchase buildings and other object of interest if this fits in our local investment strategy.
According to the PCN chairman, the Pension Fund for some time has been preparing to start with local investments on the islands. For this purpose, a local investment policy was defined by the board of PCN. “Since the inception of PCN the total capital of the pension fund has been invested abroad. PCN has no obligation to invest locally, unlike our fellow pension funds such as the General Pension Fund Curaçao (APC), General Pension Fund of St. Maarten (APS) and the General Pension Fund of Aruba (APFA)”, says Linkels. The PCN chairman says that there are however several reasons why the fund also wants to invest some of its capital locally.
“We see at our sister funds on Curaçao, St. Maarten and Aruba that local investments do in fact add value to the total investment portfolio. Volatility in the international markets does not always translate itself into similar volatility when it comes to local investments”, according to Linkels. In times of international economic volatility, local investments on the islands continue to show fairly stable returns.
Linkels says that PCN aims to realize local investments which on the one hand provide a good return and on the other hand are also relevant and beneficial to the islands and their population. “If we can realize a good return on our investments, while at the same time contributing to the economic development of the islands, where our participants live and work, then is obviously that is a win-win situation”, Linkels said.
Linkels promised that the pension fund will, within short, provide more information about the local investments it will be making. Initially, no more than about 8% of the capital of PCN will be invested locally. PCN currently has about 390 million dollars in investments. The fund invests roughly 65% of its capital in fixed income securities, such as government bonds and around 35% in shares.
Over the year 2017, PCN achieved a return on investment of more than 13%, which can be considered very high.
PCN