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Plans See Negative Returns in Q208
Mercer’s Summary Performance of US
Institutional Portfolios survey found the median
corporate plan had a second-quarter loss of 1%. Public
plans and foundation/endowment funds lost 0.7% and 0.4%
during the quarter, respectively, Mercer said in a press
release.
On a one-year basis, corporate plans had losses of 5%,
while public plans and foundation/endowment plans lost
4.4% and 3%, respectively. Over a 10-year time frame, all
of the plan types had average returns between 5.9% and
6.9% on an annualized basis.
Equity Performance
According to Mercer’s analysis, the median
large cap growth manager outperformed its value-oriented
counterparts by 490 basis points during the second
quarter. The median core large cap manager underperformed
its small cap counterpart by 240 basis points over the
current quarter. The median core large cap manager lost
0.8% while the median core small cap manager gained 1.6%.
The international equity asset class, as represented by
the MSCI EAFE(r) Index, lost 1.9%, outperforming the
S&P 500(r) Index, its U.S. large-cap counterpart, for
the quarter by a margin of 80 basis points and
outperforming on a one-year basis by 300 basis
points.
Within the international asset class, the median growth
manager outperformed its value counterpart by 200 basis
points.
Within the fixed income asset class, the median core fixed income manager outperformed the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Index in the second quarter by 20 basis points.
The median core opportunistic manager outperformed
the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Index during the quarter by
40 basis points. The median high-yield manager posted a
gain of 1.8% for the quarter.
In assessing international fixed income performance, the
median non-US and global manager had a quarterly loss of
4.6% and 3.2%, respectively.
Within the real estate asset class, the median global
REIT manager lost 8.8% and underperformed the FTSE
EPRA/NAREIT Global Index by 20 basis points. During the
quarter the median US REIT manager lost 4.9% and equaled
the performance of the FTSE US NAREIT index.
Summary Performance of US Institutional Portfolios may be downloaded free of charge from www.mercer.com .