RTÉ’s pension fund now makes more from investments than its stations from advertising

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  1. Quite interesting how big a deal this is for RTÉ financially:

    >The trustees and their investment managers have looked after RTÉ pensioners’ money very well. Last year’s performance, in particular, was exceptionally good. The superannuation fund generated €144.1 million in returns – a rate of over 13 per cent. In other terms, it added three times as much to the value of its investments than it paid out in pensions.

    >With another €2 million in interest and returns on assets owned by the “50/50” scheme last year, income from RTÉ’s two main pension funds was hot on the heels of the €148.3 million the broadcaster generated in commercial revenue over the same period, from ad sales to mast transmission fees and sales of the RTÉ Guide all combined. 

    >The licence fee, meanwhile, provided just under €200 million to RTÉ last year.

    >The RTÉ Superannuation Scheme alone generated returns much larger than the group’s advertising and sponsorship income of €120.5 million. Only once in the past decade, in 2014, did returns from pension investments come so close to catching up with RTÉ’s overall commercial revenue.

    >. . .

    >As its performance improves and members get older, the RTÉ Superannuation Scheme will also become increasingly safer in actuarial terms. If it remains as well-run as it is today, its ultimate surplus is on course to crystallise into a much larger sum than one full year of RTÉ’s commercial revenue.

    >Whether any such windfall is used to give pensioners more generous benefits or to support the public broadcaster – or to do something entirely different – has yet to be decided. “There is no policy in relation to the distribution of future scheme surpluses,” a spokesperson for RTÉ told The Currency.

    [Breakdown of assets ](https://i.imgur.com/JNUOCuj.png)

    Also nice to see a proper declaration of interests, would be good to see this more often in media coverage:

    >Declaration of interest: The Currency’s Editor Ian Kehoe is Deputy chair of RTÉ’s board. He is currently on annual leave and did not edit this article.

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