The pension fund of space technology firm Dutch Space has voluntarily joined PME, the €34bn industry-wide scheme for the metal and electro-technical engineering industries in the Netherlands.

The €115m pension scheme of the space company will add 225 participants to PME’s population of approximately 630,000, affiliated with almost 1,300 companies.

Commenting on the transfer, Pieter Pieterse van Wijck, chairman of the joining scheme, said it had found a “reliable and future-proof” pensions solution in PME.

Hans van der Windt, general director at PME, pointed out that other high-tech companies such as Siemens, Canon and Océ had already joined the metal scheme.

He said an increasing number of such companies had found a home at the industry-wide scheme “not only because it was mandatory but also on a voluntary basis”.

Over the past six years, PME has seen its pension assets grow by €6.8bn to the current €34bn after 26 pension funds joined the scheme.

PME said it was currently in talks with a number of other pension funds and their sponsors about joining.