NETHERLANDS - The pension fund of Dutch cooperative dairy giant Campina has appointed Goldman Sachs Asset Management as fiduciary manager of a €350m mandate.

The mandate covers European equity, Pacific equity and global fixed income strategies. The American-based company further said it had also been appointed by Campina to manage a global tactical asset allocation overlay mandate across the portfolio.

GSAM said it will be responsible for overseeing a better risk return profile for the overall portfolio while it will also give general advice on risk budgeting, benchmarking and managing active risk.

GSAM said the Campina deal was the third important fiduciary manager contract it had landed in the Dutch market. The company said this reflected “the accelerating trend in the Netherlands of pension funds outsourcing to external multi-managers”.

GSAM’s fiduciary management services have total assets of €7.2bn under management. €1.4bn of that is in the Netherlands, where it acts as a fiduciary manager for insurers Zorgverzekeraar VGZ and DELA.

Commenting on the new mandate, Ruud Hendriks, GSAM’s head of institutional business development, said: “It is very exciting for us to be able to work alongside Campina, drawing on our strong multi-manager capabilities with the objective of improving the fund’s overall risk return profile.

“This appointment confirms the growth of interest in fiduciary management in the Netherlands - a trend we are seeing develop further across Europe.”

Elsewhere, GSAM announced the appointment of Paul Gaston to its UK sales team. Gaston, who joins from Fidelity Investments, will be responsible for sales to UK asset management clients.

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