GERMANY – The pension fund for Hewlett-Packard Deutschland has awarded two fixed income mandates to Goldman Sachs Asset Management and one emerging market equity brief to State Street Global Advisors.

Of the two fixed income mandates handed to GSAM, one is for high-yield debt and the other for emerging market debt. Neither the volume of the mandates nor the pension fund’s assets was disclosed.

According to Teichmann Finanzmanagement, the investment consultant for HP Deutschland’s pension fund, GSAM and SSGA won the mandates mainly because of their respective investment processes.

“Historical performance in these asset classes was actually a secondary criterion in this case,” said principal Hubert Teichmann.

He added that the mandates were the result of the pension fund’s desire to diversify its portfolio, which was more or less split between equities and bonds.

At the end of October 2005, HP Deutschland had 9,100 employees, though it plans to cut 1,500 jobs.

Based in Böblingen near Stuttgart, HP Deutschland was also one of the first German firms to set up a so-called “overtime account” for its employees.

The accounts, which are quickly proliferating, enable employees to save the monetary equivalent of overtime hours, unused holiday, cash bonuses or a portion of salary to help finance retirement or any time off from work. The savings, which can include matching funds from an employer, are tax-deferred.

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