Irish pension managed funds enjoyed a welcome return to positive territory during April, gaining 2.3% on average over the month. Merrion Investment Managers, Setanta Asset Management and Zurich Life shared top spot over the month, with returns of 2.6%, while Friends First/BMO lagged the peer group over this period, with a return of 1.9%.

Managed funds are still in the red for 2018, however, with a loss of 0.5% on average over the first four months of the year. Merrion Investment Managers and Setanta Asset Management achieved the highest, and only positive, returns so far this year, gaining 0.2%, while New Ireland have delivered the lowest return over the four months at -1.4%. Over the past twelve months, Irish pension managed funds have delivered a rather meagre 2.3% return on average. Returns for the past year ranged from 3.1% (Friends First/BMO) to 1.6% (New Ireland).

The average managed fund return has been a disappointing 3.4% per annum over the past three years. The five-year average return is a more robust 9.1% per annum. Irish group pension managed fund returns over the past ten years have been 6.2% per annum on average.