NETHERLANDS – The €1.2bn pension fund of Dutch coffee maker Douwe Egberts has granted its 1,950 active participants a 3% "additional indexation" following the full salary index.
The pension fund said it would pay the inflation compensation from separate financial reserves for its workers – made available by the employer – which had risen by €9m to €67.5m last year.
It said it could not grant its 4,150 pensioners and 3,500 deferred participants a compensation for price inflation, as its coverage ratio of 105.2% at November-end was too low.
The scheme's indexation policy only allows for inflation compensation if funding is more than 110%, it explained.
The Stichting Douwe Egberts Pensioenfonds attributed its financial position in part to the 11% provision it had to make for increasing life expectancy since 2000.
Meanwhile, the €750m pension fund for Dutch logistics companies, PST, said it would increase pensions by 0.5% after reporting a coverage ratio of 112.9%.
The inflation compensation will apply to all of the scheme's 23,000 participants.
PST's minimum required coverage ratio is 104.1%, whereas its required financial buffers equate with a funding of 118.2%.
The scheme's long-term recovery plan prescribed a funding of 117% at the end of 2012.
Over the first three quarters of last year, PST returned 10.5%.
No comments yet