BPL Pensioen, the €25bn pension fund for the Dutch agri- and horticultural sector, will make €1bn worth of new impact investments over the next three to five years. The fund has hired Mercer-Cardano to select and monitor its new impact investments.
The new impact portfolio, for which a separate fund will be set up with BPL Pensioen as the sole shareholder, will be expanded gradually, with the pension fund expecting to invest about €200m per year.
This money will be released gradually through the regular rebalancing process, according to a spokesperson.
“There is no specific investment category from which the funds are withdrawn,” she said. In the long term, BPL Pensioen will then arrive at a 4% allocation for impact investments.
Climate, biodiversity and water
The impact portfolio will primarily focus on themes “with great social relevance and positive impact on the natural environment around us”, BPL Pensioen said in a press release.
The fund said it is following the wishes of its participants by focusing on investments related to climate, biodiversity and water as focus themes.
“A recent survey shows that our participants think it is important that we take into account the consequences that companies and investors have on the world,” the fund added.
Most of the new money (80%) will be invested in loans to companies, with the remaining 20% going to private equity.
BPL Pensioen has appointed Mercer-Cardano as impact oversight manager to advise on the strategy to be followed and select the investments.
BPL Pensioen already invests several billion euros in Dutch residential housing and agricultural land. The fund also considers these investments to be “partly” impact investments, according to the spokesperson.
Through the investments in Dutch homes, “we contribute to solving the housing shortage”, the spokesperson said.
“Investments in agricultural land through leasehold constructions provide a financing alternative for the agricultural sector. Within this portfolio, a lot of attention is paid to the sustainable development of the land, which contributes to biodiversity and soil quality.”
