The €1bn BAWAG Allianz Vorsorgekasse will soon have to be renamed, as the banking partner BAWAG sold its 50% share to a subsidiary of the Allianz insurance group.

Wolfram Littich, chairman of the board at Allianz Group in Austria, said in a statement: “We got an offer, and we took it.”

The BAWAG PSK banking group said it wanted to focus on its core business but would maintain a cooperation with the Vorsorgekasse to offer it to its corporate customers.

The Allianz Vorsorgekasse is one of the provident funds managing mandatory severance pay contributions in Austria that every employer has to make for its staff.

Its market share is around 15%.

Like most provident funds, the BAWAG Allianz Vorsorgekasse has also again filed for a sustainability certificate awarded by the Austrian Society for Environment and Technology (ÖGUT). 

In this year’s ranking, the Allianz fund once again achieved silver alongside competitors BUAK and Victoria-Volksbanken.

Gold went to VBV, fair-finance, Bonus and Valida Plus, while the Niederösterreichische Vorsorgekasse was awarded bronze.

A spokesperson for Allianz told IPE the BAWAG Allianz Vorsorgekasse had been one of the “initiators of the ÖGUT certification”.

The in-house sustainability index, which has been developed since inception of the fund in 2003, is reviewed annually and applied to the whole portfolio.

The sale of Bawag’s share in the Vorsorgekasse is the second major transaction in the provident fund segment in Austria after it was revealed that Victoria-Volksbanken sought to offload its fund together with the Pensionskasse.

For a more detailed look at the provident fund segment in Austria, click here