The pension fund for public sector employees plans to increase the proportion of foreign investments in its portfolio to 30% by 2025 from 20% at present, CEO Nik Amlizan Mohamed said in a Bloomberg TV interview yesterday.

The pension fund held RM159 billion in assets at the end of 2021.

“We must embrace volatility and view the current weakness as an opportunity for us to enter new investments at attractive valuations,” she said. “We are, after all, in the business of taking measured and calculated risks.”

Stocks and bonds have been roiled this year as soaring inflation forces global central banks to tighten at a time when slowing economic growth was already denting the outlook for risk assets.

KWAP intends to double the portion of its investments in the private market, which includes property and infrastructure, to 20% by 2025, amid the heightened volatility seen in the public markets.

“If we look at comparing volatility versus the expected return, our intention is to diversify further into the private market, locally and globally,” Nik Amlizan said.