(June 27, 2013) — The Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Company, a newly merged Finnish pension fund with €17.5 billion in assets, has named Hanna Hiidenpalo as its CIO.
Elo has been created through the merger of two of Finland’s sizeable pension funds: Pension Fennia and LocalTapiola Pension. The new entity will enjoy a 23% market share for the country when it begins operating in January 2014.
aiCIO has now discovered that Hiidenpalo, formerly the CIO for the LocalTapiola Pension, beat off competition from rival Pension Fennia CIO Eeva Grannenfelt and Pension Fennia’s real estate investments and corporate loans manager Timo Stenius to take the top job.
The merger is expected to deliver savings of more than 20%, or approximately €20 million a year after 2018, in operating costs. This includes a reduction in staff through what Elo terms ‘natural wastage’ and improvements in IT.
Lasse Heiniö, who will assume the role of Elo’s managing director at the beginning of 2014, said in an earlier statement that Elo would be “a trendsetter and a challenger in the earnings-related pension insurance sector“.
As for the new moniker, Elo was chosen as the result of a competition among personnel. In Finnish, the name reflects work, stability, entrepreneurship, and security through pensions.
“As our name suggests, we stand by our customers throughout their lives,” Heiniö added.
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