NETHERLANDS - Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering, the €2bn Dutch hotel and catering scheme, has awarded SPF Beheer with a €40m private equity mandate, as part of its 5% weighting target in the asset class.

Horeca said it has already previously committed €200m to AlpInvest, Goldman Sachs Private Equity and HarbourVest - with the SPF Beheer mandate, awarded on September 1, its private equity rating will rise to nearly 2%.

The fund also announced that it would seek further private equity mandates to reach the 5% target, as part of a diversified private equity portfolio.

Over the next two years SPF Beheer will invest the assets in a range of between five and 10 international private equity funds, according to Jet Gerla, senior manager for investment management at the pension fund.

She explained that the mandate went to SPF Beheer on the basis of the firm's "good results and transparent investment process", saying that it "offers the most flexibility to Horeca.

Utrecht-based SPF Beheer is solely owned by the €11bn Dutch Railway pension fund (SPF).

The firm, SPF's administrator and investment manager, also runs private equity mandates for the rail industry's fund itself and the Dutch Public Transport pension fund, buying into private equity funds globally.

Earlier this year Horeca said that it would give a 1.25% indexation to all its pensioners and deferred members, following earlier indexation decision last December for active employees.