NW pensions heavilyinvested in China

The pension contributions of thousands of local public sector workers - including Council workers, class assistants, civil servants, bus drivers and even politicians - are heavily invested across companies in the Greater China region, the Sentinel can reveal.

Over £50m worth of local pension deposits have been invested by the Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee’s (NILGOSC) pension fund managers in companies based across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The managers invest the contributions on behalf of NILGOSC for staff at Ilex, WELB, NIHE, Magee, City of Derry Airport, NWRC, Ulsterbus and some local schools among other public authorities.

Twenty seven million pounds worth of pensions have been invested in the Chinese internet service provider (ISP) Baidu, for example.

This is the thirteenth largest investment in the NILGOSC portfolio, which has been spread across hundreds of companies across the globe.

Over £8m has also been invested in the Hong Kong-based port operator and property and infrastructure developer Hutch Whampoa, whilst another £8m plus has been placed on the online corporate travel website, Ctrip, which is headquartered in Shanghai.

Fund managers also put £7,651,273.06 on the high profile Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba.

Smaller investments in Greater China include £1,241,399 in China Longyuan Power; £541,470.31 in China Mengniu Dairy; £325,867.47 in Pacific Basin Shipping; £171,504.99 in MGM China Holdings Limited; £140,525.28 in Sino American Silicon; and £287,190.50 in the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

A massive £260,972,864.14 of pooled funds have also been invested across the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan, and a further £205,967,976.89 has been pooled across the world’s emerging markets. Both of these investments will include punts on the Chinese economy.