Metzler Pension Management, an asset management division of the German Bankhaus B. Metzler bank, specialising in funding occupational pensions, has acquired the Pensionsfonds of life insurance company Nürnberger Lebensversicherung with over €290m assets, it announced today.
Metzler expects to take over the entire pension portfolio of Nuremberg Pensionfonds, including more than 700 sponsoring companies with around 3,600 individual pension plans and assets amounting to more than €290m, on 1 January 2025, it added.
With the acquisition, Metzler Pension Management plans to expand its offering in occupational pensions, strategically targeting small and middle-sized (SMEs) firms, it added explaining the rationale of the takeover.
“SMEs represent an expansion [for Metzler Pension Management] of the strategic targeted groups, building on the knowledge and experience of our team,” said Christian Remke, board member of Metzler Pensionsfonds.
Metzler said pension obligations for SMEs often represent “an extraordinary and long-term burden on the balance sheet”, and outsourcing them to Pensionsfonds has a positive impact on the company’s risk management.
The transaction is another important step towards the implementation of Bankhaus Metzler’s corporate strategy.
“We have a clear growth strategy that we are implementing step by step,” said Franz von Metzler, board member of Bankhaus Metzler, responsible for asset and pension management.
He added: “We are not concerned with short-term successes, but with sustainable results. Our pension management is an example of this. Company pension schemes will become significantly more important in the coming years.”
Last year, Metzler Pension Management signed a partnership agreement with consultancy Aon to fund and manage occupational pension plans.
Aon and Metzler Pension Management cooperate to assess obligations, preparing and providing financing solutions, risk management and capital investment and administration of company pension schemes.
Metzler Pension Management caters fo more than 780 companies, with now over 100,000 managed pension relationships, and capital investments exceeding €16.2bn, the bank said in its latest financial statement.
It offers Pensionfonds and Contractual Trust Arrangement (CTA) solutions to fund occupational pensions, at the same time assessing further options to broaden the range of services in the field of pensions management, it said.
Nürnberger Lebensversicherung has opted to sell the Pensionfonds to Metzler to strategically focus on its core business — life insurance — and income protection, pursuing a Smart Follower strategy in the fields of private and company pension provisions, it said.
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