The €508m pension fund for the wood-processing and yacht-building industries has chosen to stick with Delta Lloyd as its administrator, according to the fund’s chairman.

Peter Schuil said the scheme would not make a change despite the provider being taken over by NN Group last spring. NN has its own administration provider, AZL.

Last April, the sector scheme (Houtverwerkende Industrie) picked Delta Lloyd Pensioenfonds Services (DLPS) as its new administration provider, effective from 2018.

Schuil told IPE’s Dutch sister publication PensioenPro that it had agreed with both Delta Lloyd and NN that it could keep on using DLPS until at least 2020.

“Last spring, NN indicated that it would prefer to place our administration with its subsidiary AZL, but we declined,” said Schuil. “As a result of the tendering process, we had specifically opted for DLPS rather than AZL.”

Schuil said DLPS had more modern systems, adding that the scheme was also impressed by the provider’s communication systems and portals.

Besided Delta Lloyd’s own pension fund and its new general pension fund Delta Lloyd APF, Houtverwerkende Industrie is the first and only external client of DLPS. The company emphasised that it was open to new clients.

DLPS is to replace Syntrus Achmea Pensioenbeheer following the latter’s decision to stop servicing mandatory industry-wide pension funds, as its new IT system could not cope with their arrangements.

According to the scheme’s chair, it is still possible that the pension fund will have to transfer its administration to AZL in 2020. In this case the new merger company NN-Delta Lloyd would carry all costs.

Last spring, Houtverwerkende Industrie also signed a letter of intent with Delta Lloyd Asset Management, which is to replace Achmea Investment Management.

A spokesman for NN said that investors would receive clarity about the integration plans of NN and Delta Lloyd at the end of November.

VLEP to outsource administration to AZL

In contrast, the €2.5bn pension fund for the cold meat sector (VLEP) has chosen NN subsidiary AZL to be its pensions administrator. VLEP is another of the 22 schemes affected by Syntrus Achmea’s exit from mandatory sector scheme provision.

In addition, the scheme said it had selected Woerden-based pensions consultancy Actor to provide support to its board, effective from 1 September.

The pension scheme said it wanted to separate its pensions provision and board support, both of which had been implemented by Syntrus Achmea.

VLEP has approximately 23,000 participants and pensioners affiliated with almost a thousand employers.

For a full review of the fallout from Syntrus Achmea’s decision and a summary of how pension schemes have reacted, look out for the September edition of IPE.

Pharmaceuticals scheme awards LDI mandate

Meanwhile, the €250m Pensioenfonds Brocacef has renewed its asset management contract with NN Investment Partners (NNIP).

The asset manager said that the scheme’s €130m liability-driven investment mandate would be invested in NN’s Duration Matching Range funds, “which provide a safe and effective way of interest hedge without mandatory additional payments”.

Johan Eeken, chairman of the Brocacef scheme – the pension fund of pharmaceutical group BENU – said the new mandate enabled the pension fund “to cover its liabilities in a predictable way” and that it had been offered “flexibility in anticipating changes”.

Bart Oldenkamp, head of integrated client solutions at NNIP, said that the asset manager had a long history and “excellent track record” of managing fixed income portfolios.

“Flexibility, ease and transparency are key to the implementation of our matching strategies,” he added.

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