NETHERLANDS – The Pharmacist Pension Committee (CAP) has urged the board at the occupational association of pharmacists (BPOA) to resign.

The committee’s Harry Stulemeijer said the new board should organise the annual general meeting in June, and “find a way forward” out of a growing crisis of confidence between the occupational association – responsible for the €1.2bn pension fund for public pharmacists (SPOA) – and some of its rank-and-file members.

Stulemeijer, who has put himself forward as a candidate for board membership, together with Frank van Meijl – claimed that CAP had the support of at least 250 colleagues.

He also argued that the pension fund was dominating the occupational association, and that the BPOA had agreed that the scheme appointed its own board, without consulting the members of the association.

Stulemeijer also claimed that the BPOA scheduled general meetings at times that did not suit most of its members, was not transparent and had thwarted members’ wishes for an independent inquiry into the pension fund’s investment policy and the functioning of the scheme’s board.

In other news, Bouwinvest, the €5.6bn property manager for the €38.5bn pension fund for the building sector, said its three Dutch property funds outperformed the IPD/ROZ Index last year.

With a return of 1%, the manager’s 9.3% Offices Fund has beaten the benchmark by 3.5 percentage points, it said in its annual report.

However, Bouwinvest had to take a valuation loss of 4.9% on its investments in Dutch offices, “following decreasing sentiment on the back of forced sales”.

Chief executive Dick van Hal added that Bouwinvest refrained from investing in offices in 2012 in the belief that prices would drop further in 2013, but that it continued investing in the sustainability of its existing assets.

The property manager reported returns of 1.3% and 4.8% from its Dutch residential fund and retail fund, respectively, outperforming the index by 1 and 0.8 percentage points.

Its 28.1% portfolio of separate mandates in international investments returned 4.1% last year, thanks to increased valuations of non-listed indirect real estate in North America and new investments in listed funds.

Last year, Bouwinvest increased its international investments in listed property funds to 10% as part of a planned overall increase of the portfolio to 25% in the coming years.

The property manager has recently been awarded a type II certificate under ISAE3402 for risk management.

It also said it was hoping to become one of the first Dutch asset managers to comply with the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.

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