Our Investment Strategy, designed to both robustly manage risks and take positive opportunities, has delivered 9.7% investment returns over the last 5 years. Our successful financial performance is supported by our deep commitment to investing responsibly and we believe it is paramount in our ability to deliver sustainable, long term returns.
We had a funding ratio of 102% at March 2018, which is amongst the best in the LGPS. Our employer contribution rates are also amongst the lowest, with our employers remaining committed to ensuring the Fund maintains its excellent position going forward.
During 2017/18, we achieved an investment return of 4.4%, outperforming our strategic benchmark by 1.9%. Our positive asset returns of £162m increased the Active Fund to £3.4 billion following strong global equity market returns, very low equity market volatility and outperformance of ‘growth’ over ‘value’ stocks. However, we have seen a reversal of these trends in the first few months of 2018.