Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP ("National Civil Pension Fund"), frequently referred to as ABP, is the

pension fund A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and priva ...

for government and education employees in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. For the quarter ended 31 December 2014, ABP had 2.8 million participants and assets under management of €344 billion ($388 billion, 1 EUR=1.13 USD), making it the largest pension fund in the Netherlands and among the five largest pension funds in the world as at September 2016. ABP's predecessor, the Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds ("Dutch Civil Servants Pension Fund"), was established in 1922, following the adoption of the

superannuation A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payment ...

act, which regulated the pensions of civil servants. Originally, the pension fund was a government controlled entity that fell under the authority of the minister of home affairs in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. In January 1996, ABP was privatized although its primary function remains unchanged. Since 1 March 2008, ABP's subsidiary APG administers the ABP pension scheme. ABP is headquartered in Heerlen, Netherlands. On 1 January 2015,

Corien Wortmann-Kool C.M. (Corien) Wortmann-Kool (born 27 June 1959 in Oud-Alblas) is a Dutch politician of the Christian Democratic Appeal (Christen-Democratisch Appèl) who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 until 2014. She has a background in ...

took the chair as

Chairman of the Board The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...

Pensions

The pensions supplement statutory benefits such as the old age pension AOW, surviving dependents' pension, and incapacity benefits. If the participant stops working between the ages of 60 and 70, they receive the ABP Multi-Option Pension. If the participant dies, their partner and children may receive an ABP Survivor's Pension. If the participant becomes unfit for work, the government will pay incapacity benefits under the Work and Income (Ability to Work) Act (WIA); ABP can supplement these benefits with an incapacity pension. Since 1 January 2004, ABP pensions are based on average salaries during the course of the pensioners’ careers. This is known as an average-salary scheme. As a transition measure, benefits accrued before 2004 are based on the salary on 1 January 2004. Only members of the armed forces now have pensions based on their final salaries. Both contributions and accrual of benefits are based on the salary minus a threshold (2008: €10,100 per year). The reason for the threshold is the fact that the pension is a supplement to the AOW, etc.

Investments

ABP manages the bulk of its investments in-house through its captive investment unit APG, a privately owned investment manager. APG operates as a subsidiary of Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP and was formerly known as ABP Investments. In 2006, ABP and PGGM, another large Dutch pension fund, considered a spinoff of their investment management businesses. The two pension funds coordinate their activities in

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...

through AlpInvest Partners, one of the largest investors globally in the private equity asset class. Recently, AlpInvest Partners was acquired by the Carlyle group. In January 2014, Dutch newspaper '' Trouw'' reported that ABP acknowledged continuing their investment in Israeli banks Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, and Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot, each of which fund

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

construction in the occupied Palestinian territories.

US investment activities

In the United States, as in Europe, ABP is a major investor in financial markets including public equity, fixed income,

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ...

, commodities,

hedge funds A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as ...

and

. According to information published by ABP, its largest US investments include

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 3 ...

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, t ...

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, Ho ...

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi ( stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomera ...

Boston Properties Boston Properties, Inc. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that invests in premier workplaces in Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. As of June 30, 2022, the company owned or had int ...

, Public Storage,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

and

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

Hedge fund investments

Based in New York City
New Holland Capital (NHC)
is a 38-person alternative investment manager that oversees $20 billion in absolute return investments strategies for institutional clients. Founded in 2003 by Ira Handler, the firm began as the exclusive, non-discretionary advisors to APG Investments. In 2020, NHC expanded to a multi-client model and is now led by Chief Executive Officer Scott Radke and Chief Investment Officer Michael Jacobellis.

Private equity investments

AlpInvest Partners, founded in 1999 is the exclusive manager of

investments for APG and fellow Dutch pension group Stichting Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn. AlpInvest is one of the largest private equity investment managers globally with over €40 billion (approximately $50 billion) under management at the end of 2007. AlpInvest has offices in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

with over 60 investment professionals and over 100 employees. AlpInvest pursues investment opportunities across the entire spectrum of private equity: buyout,

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which h ...

growth capital Growth capital (also called expansion capital and growth equity) is a type of private equity investment, usually a minority investment, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new mar ...

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped ...

and distressed. AlpInvest also invests across the range of private equity investment channels: * Equity co-investments * Primary fund investments * Mezzanine investments * Secondary investments

Criticism

In June 2018, ABP was criticized by environmental organizations for its investments in tar sands oil companies and pipelines. ABP reacted by stating that active engagement with the companies delivers more result than divestment from these companies. ABP is also criticized for investing in Israeli banks that fund Israeli settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories, which considered illegal under international law.

References

Europe's largest pension funds by assets
(DowJones Financial News, 2007)

(

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, 1998) * ttps://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEED71539F931A35757C0A96F958260&scp=4&sq=abp+dutch&st=nyt Dutch Pension Funds Offer to Buy Lender(New York Times, 1999)
$2.2 Billion Dutch Deal For an Investment Bank
(New York Times, 1999)
Dutch pension fund ABP in negotiations to team up with Cordares