The Belgian finance ministry has created confusion about the status of Nestlé’s pension funds after announcing the firm is transferring its pensions assets to a pan-European OFP. Didier Reynders, Belgian finance minister, told the local media during a press lunch Nestlé was opening an organisation for financing pensions (OFP) which would see the food manufacturer’s pension funds transferred to Belgium. But Jean-Pierre Steiner, chief executive of Nestlé Fonds de Pension, told IPE no new fund was being erected, and “no Nestlé pension funds will be transferred to Belgium”.

Nestlé spokesman François-Xavier Perroud has also since added: “We are transforming our Belgian pension fund so that at a later stage it could become a European pension fund that could then receive pension fund money from people in other European countries.” After conferring with his peers, Perroud then confirmed because of EU law changes, a pan-European offering in Belgium would be cheaper and more efficient and a move to Belgium has been decided. “The intention is to use this new pension vehicle, but this is not going to happen in the next few months, it might take considerably longer,” concluded Perroud.

Belgian minister creates confusion