NETHERLANDS - The pension fund of printing company C. Misset will join the €10bn industry-wide pension scheme for the printing industry PGB next year, it announced.

"The reason for the move is the increased complexity and regulations, which require a further professionalism of policy, asset management and communication," explained Jan Bakker, chairman of the €200m Misset's scheme.

"The new requirements of the new Pension Act, on members' participation and internal supervision in particular, make it increasingly difficult for a small scheme to remain independent," board member Peter Roessel also pointed out.

According to Roessel, the employer had requested the scheme join a larger pension fund four years ago, "but then we managed to get our scheme to be continued for another four-year period", he said.

Participants in the company pension fund will see their pension entitlements rise by 15%.

"Thanks to a coverage ratio of over 150% at the time of negotiations, Misset's pension fund could agree on very favourable conditions," its pensioners' association claimed on its website.

However, because of PGB's conditional indexation arrangements following a lower funding ratio, the future indexation for the joining Misset's members is likely to be slightly less, Roessel indicated.

"The decision of Misset fits PGB's ambition to develop into a pension fund for the media and graphics industry," Paul van Leeuwen, executive director of PGB, commented.

Missets' scheme, which has 470 active participants and approximately 1,600 deferred members and pensioners, will be managed by PGB as of 1 January 2008.

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