News

The quarterly report for the first quarter of 2020 has been published. You can download the report via our website. In the first quarter, the current coverage ratio decreased from 117.0% at the end of December 2019 to 101.8% at the end of March 2020. The decrease in the coverage ratio was due to the outbreak of the corona virus. In order to limit further spread of the virus, governments were forced to introduce many restrictive measures in socio-economic traffic in the first quarter. As a result, the global economy entered a deep recession. As a result, stock markets have fallen sharply. Interest also fell in the first quarter. Both cases have led to a very sharp drop in the current funding ratio of just over 15 percentage points.

The current funding ratio fell in March from 109.8% (end of February) to 101.8% (end of March), or 8 percentage points. These funding ratio figures indicate that Philips Pensioenfonds is also suffering considerably from the corona crisis. The decrease in the current funding ratio is therefore mainly the result of developments in financial markets, which we will explain in more detail below. However, part of the decline has a completely different reason, which we certainly do not want to mention in these uncertain times: as of 1 April 2020, all pensions have been increased by 0.64%. As a result, our pension obligations have increased and the funding ratio has fallen by approximately 0.7 percentage point.

The 2020 pension overviews for all members drawing a pension have gone out. Your overview, which you will receive on 17 April, contains information about your pension at 1 April 2020.

From 1 January 2021, pension manager Blue Sky Group will take care of the administration of your pension, as well as the communication with you as a member. The agreement for this service was recently signed, after we informed you in mid-February about the signed letter of intent with Blue Sky Group. Until January 1, 2021, our current pension manager, PGGM, will continue to take care of the administration of your pension.

At the end of 2019, the policy funding ratio of Philips Pensioenfonds was 114.2%. With this funding ratio, we can partly increase the pensions in accordance with our indexation policy. The pensions will therefore be increased by 0.64% as of 1 April 2020. Our ambition was 2%.

The corona virus is currently gripping the world and our country. This has a direct impact on the financial markets. Investors are concerned about the economic consequences of the spread of the corona virus. And that is reflected in strongly negative returns on equity markets and a fall in interest rates. As a result, the current funding ratio in February decreased from 115.0% (end of January) to 109.8% (end of February), or 5.2 percentage points.

Are you traveling to a country where a negative travel advice (code red or orange) is applicable? Now that the coronavirus is going around the world and more and more countries are being classified as 'risk areas', we think it is important to clarify any restrictions on the payment for your partner (capital, annuity or pension) after death.

Philips Pensioenfonds and Blue Sky Group have signed a letter of intent for the outsourcing of pension administration from 2021. This is an important step in the process of reaching a final contract. It is expected that negotiations on the final contract can be completed in the short term. The contract with our current pension provider, PGGM, ends at the end of this year.

Philips Pensioenfonds exerts influence in various ways on companies in which we invest. As a shareholder in many companies, for example, we have the option of voting at shareholder meetings. And if companies in which we invest violate the Global Compact principles, we address them to this.