As part of our strategy to invest for a good pension, we make deliberate choices about the companies included in our equity portfolio. We aim for a portfolio with a limited number of stocks, enabling us to better understand our investments and pursue an improved balance between risk, return, and sustainability. Implementing this strategy also means we carefully select and evaluate our external asset managers.

In 2022, we began defining relevant ESG themes and ambitions for PME. These were translated into an ESG framework covering three categories: environment (climate and environmental impact), social (working conditions, living wages, etc.), and governance (board structure, transparency, ethics, etc.). Using this ESG framework, we constructed an ESG index portfolio in 2024 consisting of approximately one thousand companies in developed markets. Together with a focused portfolio of about 250 companies, this forms our “Portfolio of Tomorrow”—an equity portfolio in which every company is selected based on deliberate choices aimed at achieving solid returns and supporting a livable world.

As part of managing our ESG index portfolio, we also evaluate BlackRock as an external asset manager. Following this review, we decided to end our relationship with BlackRock. BlackRock has provided PME with high-quality services for many years in managing part of our equity portfolio. We value that collaboration and the contribution they have made in managing our investments. However, PME also considers which external managers best align with our vision and the principles of the Portfolio of Tomorrow. PME has decided that going forward, our equity portfolio will be managed by two asset managers instead of three.

This step does not change the risk or return expectations of our investments. Due to the change in the amount of managers of the portfolio the costs will be slightly lower.

Source: PME