Tag: ABP

Chairman Appointed to Lead Netherlands’ Largest Pension

Netherlands

A new chairman has been appointed to the board of trustees for one of the largest pension funds in the world, the Dutch pension fund ABP.

The move follows the appointment earlier this year of a new chief investment officer.

From ai-cio.com:

The largest Dutch pension fund has appointed influential European politician Corien Wortmann-Kool as its new chair of trustees, capping off a year of staff changes.

Wortmann-Kool replaces Henk Brouwer who stepped down as chairman of ABP in May. She has been a member of the European Parliament since 2004, and was vice-chair of the European People’s Party from 2009 until stepping down as a politician in June this year.

Jose Meijer, vice-chairman of ABP’s board of trustees, said the appointment was “an ideal combination of knowledge and experience”, adding that Wortmann-Kool had “a great deal of knowledge about the financial sector, is an experienced and strong administrator, and also has an extensive network in Brussels and The Hague”.

“Confidence in pension funds has declined over the years,” Wortmann-Kool said. “There are many changes in store in the coming years, which means that uncertainty among participants in relation to pensions could increase. I want to contribute to good and honest communication with our participants about certainties and uncertainties, so that they know what they can and cannot expect from ABP.”

ABP manages $427 million in assets.

Europe’s Largest Pension Is “Extremely Happy” With Hedge Funds

EU Netherlands

Eduard van Gelderen, the newly appointed CIO for ABP, Europe’s largest pension fund, yesterday gave his first interview since taking the job.

ABP is the pension fund for Netherlands’ public workers and controls over $360 billion in assets.

In the interview, van Gelderen addressed the trend of some pension funds scaling back their hedge fund allocations – and said his fund will have no part in it. From Chief Investment Officer:

“No,” says Eduard van Gelderen, the man overseeing investments for ABP, Europe’s largest pension fund. “No. Absolutely not. We are extremely happy with them [hedge funds].”

[…]

“[For us], hedge funds are taken care of by New Holland Capital”—an independent holding that span out of APG almost a decade ago—“and we are extremely pleased with the track record they have shown over the last years.”

At the end of 2013, ABP had assets of around €288 billion, of which it had a 5% strategic allocation to hedge funds, according to its annual report. This allocation outperformed its benchmark by 619 basis points last year and van Gelderen—who took over as CIO from Angelien Kemna on September 1— is resolute that hedge funds will remain a part of the portfolio APG manages for Europe’s largest pension.

ABP’s hedge fund portfolio is more than four and a half times larger than CalPERS’ portfolio was before it pulled out of the asset class.

Read the full interview here.

 

Photo credit: “EU-Netherlands” by NuclearVacuum. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution