NETHERLANDS – The €775m corporate pension fund of Amsterdam-based office products supplier Burhmann is to switch its pension administration and management support to the Blue Sky Group.

Currently, Burhmann’s pensions administration is carried out by AZL.

“It’s simply a question of quality and pricing,” Burhmann pension fund manager Marejn Tipker told IPE.

The arrangement will come into effect on 1 January 2006, and will be for five years, according to Blue Sky Group spokeswoman Anja Brands.

Under the deal, the Blue Sky Group will manage all the administration for the Buhrmann pension fund. This will include communications with the fund’s 1,350 active members and around 4,600 pensioners, the issuing of its annual reports, assistance to the fund secretariat and presentations to third parties.

The Buhrmann business will be added to Blue Sky’s existing stable of administration clients, including Lucent Technologies pension fund, the BP Nederland pension fund, the administration and asset management for around 51,000 people in three KLM pension funds – for ground staff, air crew and pilots – and the KLM Health Services Pension Fund, which have a total of €10bn assets under management.

Initially KLM’s pension department, Blue Sky was spun off as an independent organisation in 1999.

“It’s and important step for Blue Sky because now we can show that we have won the confidence of other pension funds and are able to manage others that are not linked to KLM,” Brands told IPE.


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