NETHERLANDS/EUROPE – The e3.5m The Hague based Europol pension fund, the scheme for officials of Europe’s police organisation has reopened a tender for administration, investment management and risk coverage of the fund that it abandoned earlier this year after poor response from investment managers.

According to Europol’s Roeland Woldhuis the new tender will run until mid-November.

Woldhuis expects that the scheme, which could now be as high as €3.5m, taking contributions and new members into account since the original tender went out in January, will be up and running by next spring. However, he notes that only one manager is needed for all elements of the tender, given the size of the fund.

While the original tender was cancelled as a result of poor response from managers, but Woldhuis hopes that problems with the original tender criteria have now been resolved. “We and our actuaries are now more or less convinced that the problem lies in the administration of the severance grant. We have reworded the tender documents with respect to the severance grant and that should iron out the creases.”

Woldhuis also expects the new tender to bring in large numbers of domestic insurance companies. “Though the offer is not confined to Dutch players, we do expect larger amounts of applications from Dutch insurers, since both we and they are based in Holland,” he says.

The investment strategy is not expected to change, with bonds accounting for 80% of allocation against 20% in equities.