Bonus Pensionskasse, an Austrian multi-employer pension fund owned by insurance companies Zurich and Generali, announced last week that it had acquired the provident fund fair finance company Forsorgekasse.
On September 30, Bonus signed an agreement with Synnova Group to take over the provident fund founded by Markus Seilinger in 2010 together with his private group, GLS Bank and Concordia Insurance.
FairFinance was also founded by Zeilinger as the holding company for the Synnova Group, which is majority-owned (80%) by a group of investors, financial professionals and social entrepreneurs.
Bonus will integrate Fair Finance into the provident fund Bonus Vorsorgegaasse (Abfertigung Neu), which was established in 2002 to manage retirement benefits.
The two provident funds may find synergies in responsible investing, as Fair Finance tends to influence ESG criteria and investment strategies when investing members’ funds. The fair financial institution Vorsorgekasse says it currently manages around 1 billion euros for 570,000 beneficiaries.
“The acquisition of FairFinance is a great opportunity for us to take a major step forward in terms of growth in a very challenging market environment. Like us, FairFinance stands for sustainable responsibility.” Bonus Pension said Georg Dowler, member of Skassen’s management board.
He added: “Going forward, we will transparently invest the funds of our more than 2 million members who are entitled to benefits as part of our legal obligation to provide them with retirement benefits.” added.
With this acquisition, Bonus Vorsorgekasse will increase its market share to approximately 14% and assets under management to approximately 2.7 billion euros. According to the pension system, Fair Finance’s market share is 5.5%.
Austria’s provident funds have assets under management of 19.8 billion euros and approximately 11 million people are eligible for pension benefits, according to the Austrian Financial Markets Authority (FMA).
With the merger of Fairfinance and Bonus Forsorgekasse, the number of Austrian provident funds has been reduced to seven.
After the transaction closes, Fair Finance will initially remain a separate company. There are no changes to the contract or terms, said Bonus Forsorgekasse management board member Michael Scherhamer.
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