The National Bank of Serbia granted a license for the merger of Hypo-Garant and DDOR Penzija plus voluntary pension fund management companies.

The two companies, where Hypo-Garant is the acquiring company, will be merged and will henceforth operate under the name DDOR-Garant. The merger of pension funds will follow thereafter.

The newly set up voluntary pension fund DDOR-Garant will have around 57,500 members, of which 28,700 will be those of the former DDOR Penzija plus fund.

With net assets of around RSD 2 billion and a market share of slightly over 20%, DDOR-Garant fund will rank third in the domestic VPF market.

Following this change there will be six VPF management companies and eight VPFs operating in the Serbian market.

For members of the DDOR Penzija plus fund, this merger will bring about some changes in accounting treatment because of mandatory conversion of DDOR Penzija plus investment units into DDOR-Garant investment units.

The number of investment units on their individual accounts will change, while the account balance will remain the same. The number of investment units and account balances of members of the Hypo-Garant fund will not change.

Members of the DDOR Penzija plus fund may transfer their accounts to a voluntary pension fund of their own choice. The management company is obligated to notify all members of their right to free-of-charge account transfer and to ensure that this option is kept open for the duration of 60 days following the notice.