NETHERLANDS – NIB Capital, which is 50:50 owned by Dutch pension funds PGGM and ABP, has bought a 50.1% stake in pension solutions provider FundPartners.

The remainder would be held by the management and PGGM.

“The new strategic alliance allows NIB Capital and FundPartners to further broaden their expertise and integrated product offering especially in the field of pension solutions for institutional and corporate clients,” the two said in a statement.

NIB spokesman Hans Rijnberg declined to say how much NIB was paying for the stake. He said NIB might raise the stake depending on FundPartners’ financial performance.

FundPartners will keep the same management and branding and there are no plans to cut any of the firm’s 11 staff. The idea is for FundPartners to work alongside New York-based Integrated Finance Ltd., in which NIB has a one-third stake.

NIB and FundPartners would jointly develop a platform to provide “an integrated solution for pension providers in the light of the current concerns about pension funding”.

“With NIB Capital as shareholder FundPartners will benefit from the infrastructure and international network of NIB Capital,” said FundPartners’ chief executive Jeroen Tielman.

“FundPartners will be instrumental for the implementation of pension and insurance products tailor-made to today’s changing environment,” said NIB Capital’s Antoine Dijkstra.

In the first half of 2003, NIB posted a net profit of 44 million euros on total operating income of 213 million euros, compared to a net loss of nine million euros in the same period in 2002.