The 220 billion guilder ($128 billion) Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, Heerlen, The Netherlands, is seeking one or more European bond managers, sources said.
A spokesman at the giant pension fund said fund officials are holding ``some exploratory talks with various bond manager (in) Europe to see what the possibilities are,'' but sources said the talks are much further along than what ABP officials would suggest.
The pension fund for Dutch civil servants employs a regional approach to bonds: J.P. Morgan Investment Management and Goldman Sachs Asset Management run U.S. bond portfolios; Goldman also manages a European bond portfolio.
Fund officials also are examining how they will approach European bond markets, on the presumption that European monetary union will occur and differences in yields between core markets will disappear. ABP officials might move further into higher-yielding peripheral European bond markets, sources said.
