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Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York:

Dutch pensions have a history of being creative when it comes to funding models. They were one of the first pension systems to move into alternatives, but recently some funds have decided to pull back citing fees and complexity. According to delegates at the recent Opalesque Netherlands Roundtable, Dutch pensions now fear headline risk more than they have in the past and that is driving the pullback.

"There has been a lot of discussion around fees that go to managers. I feel that most pension funds are now much more afraid of headlines in the newspaper which say that most of the fees they pay are actually going to the hedge funds or private equity managers," says Gerlof de Vrij, CEO and CIO, Blenheim Capital Management BV, a global macro fund with offices in the Netherlands and the US.

For local managers, this means courting a much more global client base in order to grow the business. "We are not really looking or making special efforts to win some of the local institutions as clients, and that’s what I hear from other people as well," de Vrij adds. "In my conversations with other external hedge funds or asset managers, there seems to be a consensus that there’s quite a serious standstill in the Netherlands regarding the search for alternative managers. Meanwhile, the managers here are more or less holding on to the assets that they manage, but most find it also very difficult to expand."

Negative public opinion toward hedge......................

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