GLOBAL - The €5.5bn occupation pension fund for Dutch medical consultants (SPMS) has appointed UK firm Aviva Investors as manager of its unlisted property.

The €350m portfolio consists of 34 investments in the Netherlands, Europe, the US, Asia and Australia.

Officials at SPMS said they selected Aviva Investors for its expertise, scale and "strongly rooted culture of risk management".

They added: "We expressly wanted tailor-made management."

According to Jeroen Steenvoorden, director of SPMS, Aviva Investors will be tasked with the selection of managers, the monitoring of the portfolio and reporting, as well as advising on the strategy.

Aviva Investors is managing more than €5bn of unlisted property for institutional clients.

Its management is being carried out by a 21-strong team, operating from London, New York and Singapore.

The pension fund has decided to grant its 14,000 participants a 3% indexation for 2011, which is the regular and unconditional inflation compensation.

The scheme's coverage ratio was approximately 110% at the end of December, whereas its minimum required funding equates to 104.2%.

In August, SPMS appointed APG as its pension provider, while selecting BlackRock as its fiduciary manager.

Earlier, the consultants' scheme decided to leave pension provider and asset manager Doctors Pension Funds Services, as it said it preferred large players as service providers.

Steenvoorden said the Aviva Investors mandate was the completion of the transfer process.

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