New Pension Pooling Vehicle Launched by Unilever

Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE) reports that Unilever’s Dutch and UK funds will place more than €1bn each into the new vehicle, which is a Luxembourg-based Fonds Commun de Placement.  Northern Trust will provide custody and fund administration services to Univest, the new pension asset pooling vehicle.

So far only equities will go into the vehicle but bonds, hedge funds and other assets could be added later, according to IPE.  ” Initially, Univest will offer global equities split into six sub-funds – UK, Europe, US, Japan, Pacific and emerging markets,” said spokesman Trevor Gorin, in the IPE report.

Mercer will provide manager research, monitoring and fund structure services for the new vehicle, and will also help to develop governance procedures and policies.

A recent survey found that multinational corporations are increasingly turning to pension pooling for financial as well as risk management reasons (See  Multinationals Increasingly Turn to Pension Pooling).