Pension assets under management at Kempen Capital Management have decreased by €2bn in the first half of this year, following six years of abundant growth.
The outflows are set to continue for the remainder of the year as a pension fund is in the process of removing a €1bn euro credit mandate, Kempen confirmed.
At the end of June 2021, Kempen’s institutional business had €67.4bn in asssets under management, most of which are fiduciary pension fund assets.
The firm had been the largest on the Dutch fiduciary market for many years, taking in a number of medium-sized pension funds including PostNL.
At the start of the year, the €2bn sector fund for the trade in agricultural products AVH left for PGB, explaining the bulk of the decrease in assets. AVH had been a relatively recent client for Kempen, having joined in April 2020 from Robeco, which had wound up its fiduciary business.
The arrival of the €1bn Cosun fund as a new client and a €1.7bn increase in the value of the investments were insufficient to compensate for the loss of assets.
Following the departure of AVH, Kempen also saw outflows from a government bond mandate. The asset manager said this was not unexpected as it had communicated last year that it no longer considered the strategy a core competence.
“We advise clients with such a mandate to go look for alternative providers,” a Kempen spokesman said.
Kempen is also facing the consequences of the departure of six members of its euro credit team in October 2020. At the time, the team managed some €6bn. Kempen confirmed part of the outflows could be attributed to its credit funds and mandates.
While Kempen is facing headwinds in the Dutch institutional market, it is still growing in the UK. The firm landed a £570m mandate just last week. Recently, Kempen was also appointed as fiduciary manager of UK defined benefit consolidator Clara Pensions.
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