SLOVENIA - The €185m PRVA second-pillar fund has bought a property in Ljubljana, making its first foray into real estate.

Last year, the fund, which is the largest in the voluntary Slovenian second pillar, returned 3-3.5% - well above the minimum guarantee of 1.6% - and collected €28.9m in premiums, roughly €1m more than the year before.

Miroslav Ekart, executive director of the PRVA, told IPE: "Previously, we did not consider real estate because the fund was not big enough."

The fund invested 5% of its portfolio in a property in Ljubljana as a long-term investment.

Ekart said: "You have to buy something you really know, and we know the tenants - they have a good reputation, and the investment will provide us with a stable cash flow."

He said the fund was the first of the 12 Slovenian second-pillar funds to go into real estate.

The PRVA's equity exposure is currently around 4%, but Ekart said he was mulling an increase.

At the moment, around 70% of the fund's investments are non-domestic, but practically all of those are within the EU.