Favourable developments in the Polish financial market in the first three months of 2006 resulted in another successive quarter where customers were able to enjoy the rates of return of capital life funds of Commercial Union Poland Life Insurance Company.
Favourable developments in the Polish financial market in the first three months of 2006 resulted in another successive quarter where customers were able to enjoy the rates of return of capital life funds of Commercial Union Poland Life Insurance Company.
"The first quarter positively surprised even the greatest optimists," says Marek Przybylski, general manager of Commercial Union Investment Management, the company managing the assets of CU Life funds. The main Warsaw equity index WIG gained almost 13%, and in the last 12 months its jumped by almost 50%.
"However return rates on the bond market were not so spectacular, though bonds and monetary market instruments brought profits which we would describe as very handsome," adds Przybylski. This applies to the funds offered to individual customers as well as funds offered within group life insurance and employee pension programmes. The last 36 months has been, in practice, a constant bull market which has resulted in the WIG’s increase by over 190%.
"Thus equity-oriented funds managed by us have almost tripled the value of money entrusted by customers. The equity component in mixed funds greatly contributed to achieving very good return rates. With very low inflation in recent years we have a very rare situation in Poland – real return rates, particularly of equity funds, hardly differ from nominal rates," emphasised Marek Przybylski.
Rates of return of capital life funds of Commercial Union Poland Life Insurance Company at the end of the first quarter of 2006 [%]
| Fund | 3 months | 12 months | 3 months | 5 months |
| Money-Market | 0.89 | 3.89 | - | - |
| Guaranteed | 1.30 | 5.71 | 17.47 | 44.68 |
| Guaranteed Plus | 1.19 | 5.03 | 14.15 | 33.46 |
| Stable Growth | 2.26 | 8.60 | 27.08 | 67.74 |
| Balanced | 6.05 | 22.28 | 75.95 | 117.85 |
| Eurobalanced | 7.13 | 10.43 | - | - |
| International | 5.81 | 22.19 | 68.10 | 45.90 |
| CU – Equities Fund | 11.34 | 42.79 | 186.33 | 183.33 |
| Dynamic | 11.37 | 43.27 | 226.60 | 280.52 |
| EPP* Bonds | 1.20 | 5.06 | - | - |
| EPP Stable Growth | 3.37 | 12.47 | 48.27 | - |
| EPP Balanced | 5.89 | 21.55 | - | - |
| EPP Share | 11.13 | 41.52 | - | - |
| WIG | 12.98 | 47.50 | 192.31 | 173.63 |
| Inflation | 0.1 | 0.5 | 5.8 | 9.9 |
* EPP stands for employee pension programme
A specialised company, Commercial Union Investment Management (Poland), manages the assets of the CU Life funds. It has licences from the Polish Securities and Exchanges Commission to manage securities portfolios and provide investment consultancy. It is the second largest asset management company in Poland by funds under management which amount to 10.5 billion Polish zloty (Ł1.8 billion).
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Information:
Bohdan Bialorucki
Telephone: + 48 22 557 43 41
E-mail: bohdan_bialorucki@cu.com.pl
For further information, see www.cu.com.pl
Notes to editors:
Commercial Union Poland group is part of the international Aviva group, the world’s sixth largest insurance, savings and investments group, and the largest in the United Kingdom by revenues. Aviva group operates in over 25 countries. It occupies a strong position in the European Union, including United Kingdom, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Poland. Worldwide, Aviva group services over 30 million customers and manages assets valued at over Ł290 billion. For additional information, see the website http://www.aviva.com.