NETHERLANDS – The 14 billion-euro Dutch metals industry pension fund PME, or Pensioenfonds voor de Metalektro, has awarded a 500 million-euro short-term bond mandate to PIMCO.

“The reason PME has selected PIMCO is because of their leadership in global fixed income management, their expansive knowledge of all available fixed income instruments, their common sense approach to investing and last but not least the impressive operational structure of the organization,” said PME fund manager Paul van Gent.

A PME spokesman added: “We reduced our equity portfolio by five percent. Part of this money went to the PIMCO mandate.” He added that “multiple parties” had tendered, but declined to go into details. The fund was advised by Bastiaan de Krey at Alpha Advisors.

PIMCO said that Paul McCulley, portfolio manager of short-term strategy, would manage the mandate against a three-month USD Libor benchmark.

“We are delighted to welcome PME as a new PIMCO client, as they have been at the forefront of innovations in pension management and recognize the value of a specialized fixed income manager for alpha generation,” said Marc van Heel, PIMCO’s director of business development for Benelux.

Schiphol-based PME made a 4.2% return on investments in the first quarter. Late last year it said it would allocate 700 million euros, or five percent of its assets, to commodities.

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