Goldman Sachs Asset Management announced Tuesday a $40 billion mandate as an outsourced CIO provider to Shell PLC’s European pension funds and a captive insurance company. The asset manager will also provide advisory services for the company’s North American pension plans.
As a part of the transaction, expected to close in late 2025, Goldman Sachs will serve as the fiduciary manager for $15.6 billion in U.K. plan assets and $2.8 billion in German plan assets, which represent a significant step forward in the wider European OCIO market, according to Goldman’s announcement.
The transaction will be one of Goldman Sachs’ largest multi-national OCIO mandates—just shy of the $43.4 billion that UPS outsourced to the asset manager last year. GSAM oversees $3.3 trillion in assets under supervision, a figure which also includes nearly $450 billion in OCIO assets.
Shell’s pensions will benefit from Goldman Sachs’ global investment capabilities across public and private markets, according to the asset manager’s statement.
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Individual pensions outsourced to GSAM will be provided with bespoke services to meet their varying needs and objectives, according to Goldman Sachs. Some mandates included the management of liability- and cashflow-driven investments, expanding the firm’s $300 billion in LDI and CDI assets under management.
“Pension funds, insurers and other asset owners increasingly want differentiated alpha, holistic total portfolio advice and customized portfolio solutions, delivered through an exceptional client experience,” said Marc Nachmann, Goldman Sachs’ global head of asset and wealth management at Goldman Sachs, in a statement. “They recognize that OCIO partners can have deeper investment expertise, technology resources, and operational infrastructure to help meet objectives.”
The company’s Netherlands-based pension, Stichting Shell Pensioenfonds, selected BlackRock in September 2024 as an OCIO provider for $30 billion of its assets. BlackRock will continue to serve as the fiduciary manager for Shell’s Dutch pension plans, which completed a full asset transfer to BlackRock on July 1.
In the U.S., Shell has elected to de-risk its pension liabilities, completing a $4.9 billion pension risk transfer last February with Prudential Financial Inc., covering 21,500 retirees in what was one of the largest PRT transactions of 2024.
Shell’s Dutch pension fund, as of July 31, had a funded ratio of 135.3%. The Shell Contributory Pension Fund, one of the company’s U.K. pension schemes, had a funding ratio of 108%, as of December 31, 2024.
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Tags: Goldman Sachs Asset Management, OCIO, Shell
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