Dutch Pension Fund Hires Permira Executive

Dutch pension fund administrator PGGM’s expansion of its internal private equity team continues, with the addition of Wouter Snoeijers as a director of private equity investments.

Snoeijers joined PGGM from European buyout shop Permira Advisers, where he worked for seven years. He also spent time at JP Morgan. At PGGM, he will focus on commitments to large buyout funds, as well as co-investments alongside those same managers, a PGGM spokesperson told peHUB. The pension fund administrator manages about 140 billion euros ($185 billion) in assets, according to a spokesperson.

PGGM’s internal team now numbers 15, led by head of private equity Eric-Jan Vink, who joined last year from Gilde Buy Out Partners.

PGGM and fellow Dutch pension administrator APG agreed to sell their stakes in funds-of-funds manager AlpInvest Partners to The Carlyle Group in 2011. The two pension managers continue to use AlpInvest to manage assets, but have been building their in-house capabilities.

The two pension administrators agreed at the time of the sale to kick in an additional 10 billion euros to AlpInvest through 2015. AlpInvest will continue to manage PGGM’s current portfolio after 2015, the spokesperson said, though it’s not clear if PGGM will continue to make new commitments to AlpInvest.

APG has said that while it has traditionally outsourced private equity to AlpInvest, it would begin to “address some segments of the private equity market” internally, according to a report in Private Equity International earlier this year.

Indeed, some AlpInvest executives have recently left to join APG, more specifically, APG Asset Management US, which was established to invest in US private and public investment funds, according to APG’s web site.

Iain Leigh, a former AlpInvest executive, joined New York-based APG Asset Management US last year as global head of private equity. He was joined earlier this year by former WP Global Partners executive Greg Jania, who is heading up private equity fund investments.

Also, in May, former AlpInvest Principal Megan Bethke joined the APG team as a senior portfolio manager in global private equity.

Chris Witkowsky is editor of peHUB