Nedlloyd, the €950m closed company pension scheme of the Dutch branch of shipping firm Maersk, has concluded a buyout transaction with insurer Zwitserleven. The fund has some 8,200 members, most of whom are retired.

The relatively old age of its members made a buyout the most attractive option for the fund, according to its president, Jacco Heemskerk. “Some 55% of members are above 75 years of age – with a short duration and low risk preference,” he said.

Before the transfer to Zwitserleven, effected on 1 April, the Nedlloyd pension scheme hedged its equity, dollar and interest rate risk as much as possible. The fund had anticipated market turmoil ahead of US president Donald Trump’s tariff announcements on so-called Liberation Day.

“I was quite nervous about that,” Heemskerk admitted. “That’s why in the run-up to 1 April we almost completely closed both the dollar risk and the interest rate risk. And we reduced our equity investments as much as possible.”

Perfect timing

In hindsight, the timing of the buyout was perfect, as it came just one day before markets started crashing. “The market changes after 1 April cannot hurt the fund,” Heemskerk said. “The economic risk now lies with the insurer.”

Pensioenfonds Nedlloyd has been closed since 2020. Employees of Maersk, which acquired P&O Nedlloyd in 2005, have since been accruing pension elsewhere. Under the deal with Zwitserleven, members will receive a fixed annual indexation of 3% from 2026 to 2029 and a minimum annual increase of 1.25% thereafter.

As it stands, the deal with pension fund Nedlloyd is Zwitserleven’s biggest buyout to date. The insurer, which was acquired by Bermuda-based Athora Holding five years ago, already concluded buyouts with the pension funds of fertiliser producer Yara (invested assets around €650m) and cleaning products company Diversey (Pensura, €235m) in 2024.

Most recently, the insurer has also taken over the pension liabilities of Stichting Pensioenfonds Trespa in a separate transaction involving approximately 1,300 participants and invested pension assets of approximately €180m. Participants will receive a one-off increase in pension of 10.5% on 1 April 2025 and a fixed annual indexation from 1 January 2026, the amount of which has yet to be definitively determined.

In general, the buyout market in the Netherlands has been picking up the pace following a years-long period of low activity. Insurance firms expect between €20-30bn in buyout deals until 2027 spurred by the ongoing pension transition under which pension funds are making the switch from defined benefit to defined contribution arrangements.

In December, the largest buyout to date in the Netherlands, of the closed professional scheme for dentists, was concluded when the fund’s €1.6bn in assets were transferred to insurer ASR.

This article was first published on Pensioen Pro, IPE’s Dutch sister publication. It was translated and adapted for IPE by Tjibbe Hoekstra 

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