UK – Blue Sky Group, which manages the pension assets of KLM, it to run assets of a UK scheme affiliated to the Dutch airline.

Pension Fund Air UK has chosen Blue Sky as its asset manager, the Dutch pensions provider and asset manager has announced. Blue Sky will manage all assets of the €150m scheme, it added.

As part of the deal, Blue Sky will implement a significant change of the asset mix, in order to comply with the new requirements of the pension fund, after it closed its defined benefit scheme to new members.

At the moment, the aim is to decrease the investment in equity to 35% and to increase investment in fixed income to 50% in two years time. The plan is to invest the remaining 15% in real estate, a Blue Sky spokeswoman said.

“However, these percentages could change in the meantime,” she stressed.

According to Blue Sky, 67.5% of Air UK’s assets have been invested in equity at present. Investment in fixed interest counts for the remaining 32.5%.

Pension fund Air UK has 465 active members, 484 pensioners and 1,454 deferred participants. The scheme started in 1980, when the company started as a merger of four regional airlines in Britain. In 2004 the airline – already renamed KLM UK – merged with KLM Cityhopper.

Blue Sky Group is pensions provider and asset manager of nine – mainly KLM-affiliated – schemes, with almost 51,800 members in total. Its assets under management are €9.4bn.

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