EUROPE – Computer giant IBM is understood to have had a re-think about pooling its European pension assets because of uncertainty over tax harmonisation.

The company won’t commit itself to either Dublin or Luxembourg while the harmonisation issue is still unresolved and is prepared to wait as long as necessary.

IPE understands IBM does not want to rush into anything, especially given what it sees as its leadership role in the business community.

The move could be a blow to IBM’s pension pooling partner Northern Trust. In July Northern Trust said it was working with two multinational companies, one of which is IBM, on tax-transparent pension pooling. Other firms involved were Goldman Sachs and Mercer Investment Consulting.

No Northern Trust people were immediately able to comment.

In April IPE reported that IBM was likely to become one of the first multinational companies to use the common contractual fund (CCF), Ireland’s new tax transparent pooling vehicle, to pool its pension funds’ global equity assets.

Martin Jack, director of IBM Retirement Funds EMEA (RFE), the internal investment consultancy that supports 20 pension funds in Europe with assets of around 16 billion euros, told IPE at the time that the decision to choose a CCF was “not yet 100% but almost certain”.

Last month the company said it has guaranteed to make contributions of 181 million pounds for the next three years to its 3.25 billion-pound (4.6 billion-euro) UK defined benefit pension scheme, which is 900 million pounds in deficit.

The person told IPE this decision should clear up fears that the company planned to wind-up the scheme. “Wind-up was never on the agenda,” the person stated.