Finland’s Ilmarinen goes back to basics

Talking Heads: Once one of the few funds that would enter bank risk recycling trades, recent overcrowding has seen it pivot to listed equities

This article is the second in a series of interviews with innovators in equity markets. The series is available here.

Perhaps fittingly for a company named after a god of invention, Finnish pension fund Ilmarinen has had to reinvent its investment strategy in recent times.

The company was one of the pioneers of so-called risk recycling trades, where investors take on exposures built up by bank structured products desks. But a rush of hedge fund interest in the trade has eroded its performance