SPVG, the €375m pension fund for glass manufacturers in the Netherlands, has said it will liquidate itself and join PGB, the €16.3bn industry-wide pension fund for the Dutch graphics, packaging and process industry.
The pension fund is still waiting for the DNB – the pensions regulator – to pay damages for lost returns after the watchdog forced SPVG to offload its gold holdings.
The pension fund filed an €11m claim for compensation against the DNB after the regulator was adjudged to have wrongly ordered the scheme to slash its gold allocation from 13% to 3%.
The pension fund’s decision to pursue compensation followed the rejection of the DNB’s appeal against the verdict of the Rotterdam court.
The court had ruled that the watchdog’s reasoning in the case had been “unacceptable”.
Although the DNB has not yet paid, SPVG has already factored in the €9.5m into its assets.
Meanwhile, SPVG’s employer, O-I Netherlands, is to provide an additional contribution of €4m to facilitate the transfer of pension rights, which is to take effect on 1 October.
Last year, the company contributed an additional €7.5m to limit a necessary rights discount of 6.1% to 4.6% for the more than 3,000 predominantly older participants.
The pension fund said its employer had made the newest additional contribution conditional to a merger with PGB, which is expected to implement the pension arrangements against much lower costs.
Last year, SPVG lost 11.2% on its investments as a consequence of the effect of increasing interest rates on its large fixed income allocation.
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