THE state-owned Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the pension fund for government workers, said its net income for the first quarter was flat compared with the same period last year, but the agency is confident of hitting its income goal for the year.
GSIS president and general manager Robert Vergara told reporters that the pension fund’s net income as of March 31 was around P14.6 billion or around the same level as last year’s.
“Last year there were equity transactions. This year there were not as many equity transactions but there was an increase in premium [payments] as a result of the salary increases [of government workers] last June,” Vergara said.
He said it was easy for the pension fund to project its growth for the year, as it was only looking at the premium payments of the members and the investment income.
“I think we’re looking at around P50 billion to P55 billion in net income this year. We’re on track [on net income for the first quarter],” Vergara said.
“We’re slightly not on track on the equity returns because the [stock] market was not doing well in the first quarter, and bounced sharply only in April,” he added.
Last year Vergara said revenues from premium contributions were about P47 billion, while revenues for investment were about P38 billion.
The GSIS then paid claims to its 1.4 million members of about P40.1 billion, making a net income of P44.9 billion for 2011, he added.
The GSIS earlier said it intends to place all of the $670-million recalled funds meant for investments overseas in the domestic market, such as in the stock market and fixed-income investments such as bonds.
Vergara said the GSIS intends to increase its placements in publicly listed companies to 9 percent of its investible funds from the current 6 percent. It also intends to raise its fixed-income investments to 50 percent from the current 42 percent. “We are increasing our investments domestically. We have added to our equity holdings and we continue to see value on fixed income. The proceeds are slowly being invested in fixed-income and equity.”
As of end-February, the GSIS has invested domestically about P245 billion, 42 percent of which were placed into government securities while another P45 billion, or 6 percent of its total investment portfolio, were placed in the stock exchange. The investible fund does not include yet the recalled funds from the GSIS’s global investment.
