NETHERLANDS -- NIB Capital, ABP and PGGM’s jointly owned merchant banking venture, is to acquire full ownership of its asset-structuring arm FundPartners.

Hague-based NIB Capital currently owns 50.1% of FundPartners, which provides asset structuring and custody monitoring services to the Netherlands and Benelux pensions industry. NIB Capital bought a majority stake in Fund Partners in September 2003.

NIB Capital said at the time it wanted to take advantage of tightening pension investment regulation in the Netherlands and the focus on liabilities.

This month it will acquire the remaining 49. 9% of the business, currently held by PGGM and the management of FundPartners.

NIB Capital said that full ownership of FundPartners “will enable it to further strengthen its position in the pensions market.”

Jeroen Tielman, the founder and chief executive officer of Fund Partners commented: “Initially we didn’t want to sell more than the 50.1%. But over the past year two things happened. First we fully concentrated on the pension market and second, in working together with NIB we saw that moving into the area of full synergy would work best for both of us.”

Tielman said that full integration was necessary “to meet market demand for asset structuring solutions based on the liabilities side – a major theme now in the market.”

He said the acquisition would provide FundPartners with essential working capital: “From FundPartners point of view we have been investing out of the limited working capital of a small company to meet the needs of a huge industry. We reached a point where on the one hand we found we had to reduce costs to keep a healthy financial situation, and on the other hand we foresaw we would have to invest even more heavily in product innovation.

“An advantage of being part of NIB Capital we are now able to offer a broader range of concrete solutions to our clients.”

A team of four people from FundPartners, including Jeroen Tielman, will move to the NIB Capital office in The Hague.

Topics