NETHERLANDS - Chip manufacturer NXP is in negotiations to place its Dutch workers' pensions with the industry-wide pension fund for the Metalektro (PME).

NXP is the former semiconductor branch of Philips which was last year sold in a €6.4bn deal to a consortium of private equity investors, including Alpinvest, owned by the two largest Dutch pension funds, ABP and PGGM.

The company employs over 6,000 workers in the Netherlands, who have been allowed to stay in €15bn Philips' pension fund until 1 October.

Initially, NXP intended to establish its own pension fund, as a continuation of the Philips' scheme. "But this turned out to be impossible, since the mandatory scheme of Metalektro applies to the company," it has told its employees.

According to NXP, the transfer to PME will lead to "more expensive arrangements than a simple copy of the Philips pension fund."

However, it will conduct further negotiations on details and financial implications with unions and PME, to allow for a transfer on 1 October, it added.

According to an NXP spokesman, the new arrangements will only apply to active workers as deferred members and pensioners will stay with the Philips' scheme.

The €21bn PME manages the pension rights of over 660,000 workers and pensioners in its sector, which consists of 1,300 mainly large and average-sized companies. It recently decided to place its assets with Mn Services as fiduciary manager.

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