NETHERLANDS – Hewitt Associates, which has now taken over the administration of the Philips Pension Fund, says it sees consolidation in the pensions administration area.

Hewitt won the deal when the electronics giant decided to outsource pensions in April, in a move which saw Merrill Lynch Investment Managers take on around €12bn in pension assets in a seven-year contract.

Philips Pensions Management will continue to be based in Eindhoven. Part of the transaction will see its 90 employees joined by approximately 140 Hewitt employees in a “co-location” arrangement.

“I don’t foresee any job losses,” Hewitt’s Amsterdam-based general manager Paul Howes told IPE.

PPM is currently responsible for the management and administration of pensions for approximately 165,000 members.

For Hewitt – which has 1.4m plan participants in Europe alone and 19m worldwide – the takeover is the “missing piece of the puzzle”.

“We were underweight in Europe,” said Howes.

“We have seen consolidation in our asset management and actuarial business. And now we expect the same in pension administration.”

“The acquisition was not about being big in the Netherlands, but about being big in Europe,” said the general manager.

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