GERMANY - Financial services group MLP has acquired pension consultant TPC for an undisclosed sum.

Through this purchase, Marschollek, Lautenschläger und Partner (MLP) is made another step towards strengthening its position in the occupational retirement business it entered in 2004.

MLP began its foray into occupational pensions four years ago when it bought pension consultancy Berag, which had 1,000 clients.

MLP is en route to reach its goal of doubling the business in this sector by 2010, as announced by Harald Huhn, head of occupational pensions at MLP, after the purchase of Berag, as TPC has 500 clients (See earlier IPE story: Germany's MLP to double occupational business)

The Pension Consultancy (TPC) was founded in 1999 by consultant Cord Brockmann and pension expert Oliver Schön, and both will remain part of the managment at MLP but report to Huhn.

Together with their staff of 70, the TPC founders will increase MLP's staff in the occupational retirement business to 130.

MLP's business for larger companies will run under the label TPC, while the name MLP will be applied to work with small and medium-sized enterprises.

Huhn argued in a statement MLP is "one of the very few indpendent consultants in Germany" to cover all business sizes.

When the firm entered the occupational retirement market in 2004, MLP had to position itself alongside well-established German consultancy names like Heubeck, Heissmann and Bode Grabner Beye.

Heissmann and Bode have since been acquired by international consultants Watson Wyatt and Hewitt respectively while Heubeck has entered into co-operations with fund research company Feri and the Germany's state-owned savings banks (Sparkassen).

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