EUROPE - Pension arrangements for the Dutch Alcatel pension fund, Stichting Pensioenfonds Alcatel Nederland (SPAN), has been transferred to Delta Lloyd Life, pending approval from Dutch pensions regulator De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB).

Since 22 June, the interest rate and inflation risks have been guaranteed by Delta Lloyd, with the pension benefits and accrued rights shifted to the insurer from 1 July.

The insurer guarantees nominal pension rights and 50% of future inflation, with Alcatel transferring €90m in assets to Delta Lloyd as payment.

Earlier, Delta Lloyd announced that Stichting Pensioenfonds Petroland had also transferred its pension plan as of 1 July to the insurer, again pending DNB approval.

Accrued rights are insured with a buyout contract of €171.8m, while future rights are insured under a 10-year contract with an annual premium of €6.5m.

Meanwhile, the DKK87bn (€12bn) Industriens Pension has appointed State Street to provide analytics services for the scheme's private equity investments.

The scheme's head of equities Henrik Nøhr Poulsen said the arrangement allowed Industriens to spend time analysing data, rather than simply collecting all the relevant information. 

"As we expand our alternative investment portfolios, we require a more robust and cost-effective administrative solution," he said.

In other news, the pension fund of Royal Haskoning, an internationally operating company founded in 1881 with 19 branch offices in The Netherlands, has selected AZL, based in Heerlen, as its new pensions administrator. AZL is the Centre of Excellence with regard to pensions within the ING Group.

From January 2012, AZL will administer pension benefits for the scheme's 3,500 participants. AZL will also be responsible for actuarial reporting. 

Finally, Florint Capital has won a mandate for advisory and execution services related to the €750m fixed income portfolio of the Dutch province of Limburg. The mandate was announced at the end of August.

Florint Capital is an active manager operating in the institutional market and specialising exclusively in fixed income.

According to a spokesperson, the manager focuses on "transparent, high-grade bond mandates tailored to the needs of institutional clients".

Florint presently has €4.1bn in assets under management in the Dutch institutional market.