Stichting Pensioenfonds Openbaar Vervoer (SPOV) offers companies, employees and former employees in the public transport sector a good, modern pension scheme.

 

The scheme is a collectively defined benefit plan, targeting a pension reflecting average salary levels. The scheme offers members full flexibility and income security. Scheme members accumulate old-age and surviving dependants' pensions.

 

With assets under management of EUR 2.4 billion and 11,8000 members, roughly 6,000 former members and approximately 8,800 pensioners, SPOV is a medium-sized pension fund. Transparency is paramount to the pension fund, which is why SPOV sets great store by good communication. The fund is a non-compulsory, sector-wide pension fund for companies falling under the Public Transportation cao(Collective Labour Agreement) and is a member of the Vereniging van Bedrijfstakpensioenfondsen (Association of Industry-Wide Pension Funds, VB).

 

Socially responsible investment  
An important element of the investment policy of SPOV is socially responsible investment (SRI). The board sharpened its SRI policy in 2007. The board has embraced the principles of the United Nations Global Compact as a basis for its SRI policy and signed the Principles for Responsible Investment. In addition, the board has developed supplementary sharper requirements in the areas of child labour, the environment and human rights. The board has decided to debar investments in controversial weapons, such as cluster bombs, land mines, biological, chemical and nuclear weapons and weapons containing depleted uranium.

 

The policy of socially responsible investment
Besides the application of the Global Compact and the Principles for Responsible Investment SPOV makes use of a number of possibilities for making its vision of socially responsible investment and enterprise clear to businesses.
 
Voting
The SPOV is already voting at all shareholders’ meetings. In this way we give a clear signal, even if we hold only a small proportion of the shares. SPOV behaves as an engaged and well-informed shareholder. 
 
Engagement
The board can decide, on the basis of the Global Compact principles and the additional conditions in the areas of child labour, the environment and human rights, to engage in an active dialogue with the management of the business in order to persuade the business to improve its performance in the areas of human rights and the environment. We call this engagement. We adopt as a guideline a realistic period within which the first results must become visible. If a business does not make any improvements, we will not invest in it.
 
Exclusion
The board can decide, on the basis of the Global Compact principles and the additional conditions in the areas of child labour, the environment and human rights, not to invest in certain businesses. We call this exclusion. The board takes this decision in respect of businesses that produce controversial weapons. The fund defines controversial weapons as cluster, nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, weapons with depleted uranium and anti-personnel land mines. The board can also decide to sell the shares of businesses which, after a dialogue with them, still systematically turn a blind eye to child labour, environmental pollution and serious infringements of human rights, and the shares of businesses whose management does not undertake any adequate actions to resolve the problems in line with the Global Compact principles. 

SPOV debars a number of companies from investment. The board has decided to debar investments in controversial weapons and weapons with depleted uranium. The fund can also decide to debar companies where an engagement procedure has not led to a satisfactory result. An engagement procedure is started where controversial weapons result in immediate exclusion through infringements of the Global Compact.

Exclusions are published here.

 

Inclusion
The board can decide conversely to invest in companies that do business primarily on the basis of their social responsibility.
 

Ethical Code for External Management
In making decisions on investment in businesses, debarring businesses or engaging with them, the board makes use, inter alia, of information from independent and specialised bureaus. Part of the portfolio is externally managed, in which case the ethical code for external management of the fund applies. With existing contracts it is not always possible enforce the full introduction of the code, but with new contracts respecting the code is a firm requirement. 
 
We are aware that socially responsible investment will require our constant attention. In view of the many businesses in which we invest and the many parties with whom we collaborate, we cannot always prevent money from SPOV being linked at some point to undesirable activities, although we do our best to ensure that this does not happen. An important tool for doing this is that we are open with our participants and with society about our investments.
 
Corporate governance  
Corporate governance concerns the manner in which businesses are managed and the manner in which that management is supervised. The point of departure is that executive and non-executive directors must be accountable for the performance of their task. The Dutch Corporate Governance Code (the Tabaksblat Code) is, inter alia, a working out of the social responsibility that Dutch pension funds owe towards their participants and beneficiaries.

SPOV has formulated its own corporate governance code, on which the voting policy is based. These corporate governance principles conform with the ICGN Global Corporate Governance Principles and the Tabaksblat Code. ICGN stands for International Corporate Governance Network.

 

List of external managers of manager's funds  
Each quarter we publish here a retrospective list of funds in which we have invested. This lists both the individual titles of funds in internal and external management as well as the names of the external managers. Unfortunately, partly for reasons of compliance, we cannot list the current interests in titles on the actual day.  

 

Voting behaviour  
Link to voting behaviour.

Link to the voting policy.

 

Investment policy
The investment policy of Stichting Pensioenfonds Openbaar Vervoer is geared towards achieving a maximum investment result over the long term, with a specified risk profile. The policy also seeks to generate additional return in the tactical portfolios in the short term. The Asset Liability Management study (ALM) is the most important source of investment policy input. This is an annual study that matches the assets and liabilities as closely as possible, to produce a spread across the various investment categories in the portfolio. This is also referred to as the “asset allocation” or “investment mix”. SPOV’s investment policy also embraces corporate governance and social responsibility, since it is in SPOV’s interests to engage in socially responsible entrepreneurship and the good corporate governance of listed funds.

Stichting Pensioenfonds Openbaar Vervoer does not invest in hedge funds. This is because the potential benefit of positive, stable returns is outweighed by the high costs, the lack of clarity about where the investment is actually being made, the limited opportunities for monitoring the risks and limited access to genuinely skilled managers.

 

Key figures 

1 Since 2006, this figure has excluded people who are unfit for work
2 Since 2006 the provision has been determined based on Financial Assessment Framework (FTK) principles
3 Indexing of active members, prior to 2006 based on the final salary system