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STATE-RUN Government Service Insurance System GSIS) plans to invest
heavily in fixed income, equities and properties in the Philippines
and offshore.
In a briefing Friday, Winston F. Garcia, GSIS
president and general manager, said the state pension fund will
invest $5 billion. For this year alone, it will initially invest $1
billion abroad, and another $1 billion in local investment
instruments.
The investment will be split in half between
fixed income and equities, and properties.
“The GSIS is looking for some strategic
investments locally after disposing of our San Miguel shares worth
about P14 billion,” Garcia told reporters.
He said GSIS will grab the opportunity when
everything is “starting very low” even with the current
volatility in financial markets.
Garcia earlier said the pension fund is
investing P15 billion for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the second
quarter of the year if the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
issues the rules and regulations.
“Through the ETFs, we can buy a basket of
securities mirrored with the [Philippine Stock Exchange] index. It
will be able to utilize [that] basket of securities, so that those
who wanted to invest in the Philippine stock market can just buy
this, without having to look in individual stocks,” he said.
-- Chino S. Leyco
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