Switzerland-based Novartis's pension fund plans to invest four percent of its 14 billion Swiss francs ($11.37 billion) in precious metals, the manager of the pension fund told Reuters on Monday.
"What we want to do is to invest one percent, that is 140 million Swiss francs ($114.1 million), in gold, one percent in platinum, one percent in palladium and one percent in silver, that's more or less half a billion Swiss francs," Andre Ludin, head of portfolio management at drugmaker Novartis AG, said.
"We have decided and we will do it. We will do it very slowly because we have to be very careful for platinum and palladium," he told Reuters in a telephone interview from Switzerland.
"It's a question of diversification because we have shares, we have bonds," he said, adding returns on bonds were low and therefore investing in metals was another way.