Dutch fund Stichting Pensioenfonds Medisch Specialisten (SPMS) has appointed Aviva Investors to manage an additional €200m of assets in a global real estate mandate.

Aviva Investors will now be managing over €550m of assets for the fund.

SPMS, which supplies retirement provision for independent medical specialists in the Netherlands, has around 15,000 scheme members and more than €7bn of assets under management in defined benefit (DB) schemes.

Aviva Investors Real Estate Multi Manager team has managed the unlisted global indirect real estate portfolio for the past two years.

It is being expanded into a holistic real estate mandate, which will offer the choice to invest in listed or unlisted real estate or cash.

SPMS' Jeroen Steenvoorden said: "We believe the holistic solution will add flexibility in implementing and maintaining our worldwide real estate strategy. We also anticipate enhancing our returns in periods when a specific real estate category is under or overvalued."

Ian Womack, chief executive of real estate at Aviva Investors said: "We are very pleased to be able to extend our mandate with SPMS and are proud to be able to continue our work with such a long-standing and prestigious pension fund.

"It is clear that pension funds are increasingly looking towards innovative real estate approaches within their portfolios and we see this increase in the size of our mandate as a strong example of this evolving trend."

First published 10.07.2013

mnique_simpson@wilmington.co.uk