NETHERLANDS – Dutch food retailer Laurus has awarded a €400m custody and transition management mandate to Northern Trust, resulting in a loss for incumbent ABN Amro Mellon.

And Northern Trust Global Investments – the asset management arm of Northern Trust – has been assigned to restructure scheme assets.

The move follows a vote in June amongst fund members, which resulted in a new scheme structure being adopted that will become effective as of January 1.

A Laurus spokesperson stated: “Following an asset and liability management study and the change in oversight body policy, the board concluded that the investment policy of the Laurus Pension Funds was to be amended.

“In this view also the asset managers were reconsidered and new parties were contracted to execute the new policy.”

The restructuring – initiated in March and completed in April - involved an improved matching between pension liabilities and the cash flow of the investments, Laurus said.

“Furthermore the overall risk was reduced and the expected return on investments increased.”

The advisors in the tendering process were Insinger de Beaufort and Watson Wyatt.

Northern Trust will provide the full range of core global custody, compliance monitoring and performance analysis services to the fund.

“After the initial selection, we subsequently decided to employ Northern’s transition management group to restructure the assets, which occurred seamlessly.

“Being able to work with one provider on both aspects turned out to be a major benefit for us,” said Laurus pensions manager Dick Kamp.

“We are now able to consolidate our reporting and analysis requirements, thereby reducing risk and administrative inefficiencies.”

ABN Amro Mellon could not be reached for comment.



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