GERMANY - The €270m pension fund of the Bavarian cooperative Pensionskasse der Genossenschaftsorganisation VVaG has said it will expand beyond its Bavarian borders to target companies across the whole of Germany.

The Munich-based corporate pension organisation, which has around 480 affiliated companies ranging from banking, to the farming sector and building corporations in Bavaria, today announced the German regulator BaFin has no objections to its expansion.

Thomas Schätz, member of the executive board of the pension fund, told IPE the scheme sees opportunities to grow beyond its Bavarian borders because of its industry-wide cooperative nature.

The fund, which currently has around 20,000 participants, manages its entire investment portfolio in-house.

At the end of 2007, the scheme invested 8% in real estate, 14% in fixed income, 67% in bonds, and 11% in fixed-term deposits.

The fund currently has no exposure to equities, though this might change in the future, according to Schätz.

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