IPE's Netherlands Coverage – Page 162
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Features
PGGM sees long life in Levensloop
PGGM’s new pension fund subsidiary Careon Levensloop has finalised a seven-year outsourcing contract with KAS Bank and Ordina. The agreement - effective from 1 January 2006 - will see Ordina in charge of administrative tasks, while KAS facilitates the associated banking process. “We will offer products to our clients to ...
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Features
The perils of serving two masters
Anyone who has attempted to serve two masters knows that the risk of conflicts is enormous. Real success is only possible in two cases: where the two masters have no overlapping interests or when they have completely aligned interests. Dutch pension funds have a long history of serving multiple masters, ...
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Features
The case for keeping it simple
Pension funds are doing well in solving disputes with their members, and they are even improving. This is the view of Dutch Pensions Ombudsman Piet Keizer. “There is a clear trend towards better information and dealing with members’ complaints. A growing number of funds have their own complaints’ schemes, which ...
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Features
Funds in profile
DSM Pension Services Ewout Gillissen, senior investment manager The stock market success of speciality chemicals company DSM, the former petrochemical giant, is being mirrored by the financial success of its pension funds. After the divestment of the petrochemical segment to Saudi Arabia’s SABIC, the in-house pension management supplier DSM Pensions ...
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Features
The bull in the china shop
It is a new dawn over Eindhoven for the investment team for the Philips Pension Fund. This autumn it joined the thundering herd of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM), one of the largest asset managers in the world with $478bn (e396bn)under management. The deal, completed in September, is a boon ...
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Features
Tailoring messages to members
Like many aspects of modern life, pensions are becoming less standardised and more complex, with individuals facing more choice and demanding more information tailored to their needs. As pension funds try to meet the requirements of their members, communication is becoming an increasingly important part of the service they provide. ...
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Features
More to communication than links
Consensus is growing both within and outside of the pension world that clearness and transparency about complex pension schemes is needed. Yet the quality of communication between funds and participants and pensioners is often criticised. Have pension funds and insurers not yet found the best way to communicate, or is ...
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Features
Emerging market debt: a maturing asset class
Investors should consider emerging market debt (EMD) as a key component of a diversified portfolio. Despite various crises during the 1990s, EMD has outperformed versus all other asset classes over the last ten years (see Table 1). And, because the asset class is more closely aligned to other risk assets, ...
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News
ABP grows by €8.6bn to €186.9bn
NETHERLANDS – Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, Europe’s largest pension fund, got even bigger in the third quarter – growing by €8.6bn to €186.9bn with a 4.6% investment return.
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News
ABP hit by low interest rates
NETHERLANDS - Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, Europe's largest pension fund, says its financial position "deteriorated" in the second quarter due to low interest rates.
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News
ABP rejigs investment process in drive for alpha
NETHERLANDS - Europe’s largest pension fund ABP has restructured completely how it goes about managing its assets. The E170bn fund has switched to being predominately in-house managed and is 100% on an active basis dedicated to producing alpha.
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Features
Revolution at the top
Europe’s largest pension fund, the mighty ABP has turned its approach to investment inside out. The equity portion of the E170bn portfolio that was 75% externally managed just three years ago, is now two-thirds internally managed. The 45% that was on an indexed basis has fallen to zero – the ...
