Dutch insurers had a \u200ccombined \u20ac455 billion ($531.44 billion) in assets under management at the end of March, including pension funds they own such as AZL, and Dutch dentists’ fund SPT, according to De Nederlandsche Bank data.<\/p>\n
Yet the Dutch Insurers Association, representing the sector in the talks, said they lack expertise to perform due-diligence in the secretive defence sector, while a spokesperson for the MoD said screening investments remains the responsibility of investors.<\/p>\n
“We need the government for this. Defence is a very untransparent industry for us and the government is the party that has all the context, the information needed to really make a good \u200bdecision,” a spokesperson for the insurers’ association said.<\/p>\n
The last substantive discussions with the government were held last September and no further talks have been scheduled, the association said.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands spent around 2.2% of GDP on defence last year, \u200band the MoD estimates that meeting, opens new tab<\/a> the 3.5% target by 2035 will require extra defence spending of \u20ac16 billion-\u20ac19 billion a year. The government aims to source roughly half of future defence \u2060purchases domestically and from European suppliers, to build up the country’s defence<\/a> sector.<\/p>\n Dutch insurers have shown growing interest in the sector. To become significant investors, however, they would need specific information about where a defence company sells to and details of all \u200bits products, to comply with their own environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies that prohibit investment in companies producing certain weapons or supplying certain countries, the association spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The Ministry of Defence acknowledges that gathering information on suppliers can be difficult because of secrecy \u200brequirements and has launched a website compiling public information on suppliers, though the insurance industry says the material does not fully address its needs.<\/p>\n INSURERS PREFER BONDS<\/p>\n Another challenge for insurers investing in defence companies is that their risk and investment profile is better suited for fixed-income instruments, such as bonds and other forms of debt, analysts and the insurers’ association said.<\/p>\n “A government-issued defence bond could be a more natural investment. Fixed-income securities represent a much larger share of insurers’ portfolios than direct equity. A bond could therefore fit more easily,” the association spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Top Dutch insurers NN \u200bGroup (NN.AS), opens new tab<\/a>, ASR Nederland and Achmea combined had nearly \u20ac146 billion in fixed-income portfolios as of the end of June, with the largest portions allocated to government debt.<\/p>\n One solution, the association says, would be for the Netherlands to set up a sovereign debt \u200btool, like France which is at the forefront of Europe’s defence push. That could broaden the addressable pool of funds available to insurers, while also shifting the duty of vetting defence firms onto the debt issuer.<\/p>\n Last year, a French state-backed public investment bank BpiFrance launched two \u200cprogrammes: the \u20ac450 million Defence \u2060Fund<\/a> targeting retail investors, and the \u20ac1 billion European Defence Bonds aimed at institutional investors, with the aim of supporting French and European small and medium-size defence firms.’DEFENCE’ NOT A DIRTY WORD ANYMORE<\/p>\n ASR Nederland made its first defence investment last year, in an undisclosed company, and said it is prepared to commit up to \u20ac100 million per transaction. Achmea increased its defence exposure to \u20ac150 million in 2025 from \u20ac20 million and expects further growth. ASR said it needs more information before making bigger investments.<\/p>\n Still, ASR Nederland’s own ESG rules, for example, only allow it to invest in defence companies based in the Netherlands and only in companies that do not supply high risk countries (as defined in the IRBC Framework on Controversial Weapons and Trade in Weapons with High-Risk Countries).<\/p>\n NN Group has updated \u200bits approach to support the European defence value chain, including \u200binvestment in military-related IT, infrastructure, equipment and aerospace.<\/p>\n “Defence is \u2060not a dirty word anymore… but if we want to make a bigger step, then we would really need additional information from the government,” the insurers’ association’s policy advisor Deniis Heijnen told Reuters.<\/p>\n SMALL MARKET MEANS FEW OPPORTUNITIES<\/p>\n Even if government and insurers agree a framework, investors face another challenge: a shortage of opportunities large enough to attract institutional capital.<\/p>\n The Dutch defence sector has expertise \u200bin building warships, naval radar systems, small land vehicles, UAV drones and C4ISR systems, as well as defence components and satellite systems. Major manufacturers include Damen Naval, Thales Nederland, GKN \u200bFokker, Airbus Netherlands and VDL Group, \u2060yet the sector’s annual revenue totalled \u20ac10.2 billion in 2025, according to the MoD, which is small compared with France, Germany, Italy and Britain.<\/p>\n “Institutional investors like pension funds and insurance companies often feel the individual ticket sizes are too small,” said Hans Huigen, chief executive of Dutch defence industry association NIDV.<\/p>\n PwC Nederland estimated in a 2025 report that the MoD will need to spend around \u20ac62 billion by 2030 on defence equipment, with \u20ac41 billion of that expected to be earmarked for Dutch manufacturers, either in contract or sub-contracting contracts.<\/p>\n The Netherlands has \u2060a pool of \u200baround 400 domestic makers of components and sub-systems, metal parts, frames, engines, chassis and sensory systems, but to handle that sort of spending they would \u200bneed to increase their combined output by 3-4 times by 2030, according to PwC.<\/p>\n Huigen said a \u20ac300 million-\u20ac500 million fund capable of providing loans could help bridge a key financing gap for scale-ups, though he questioned whether enough companies currently exist to justify setting one up.<\/p>\n “It all comes down to reducing risk, \u200brather than increasing returns,” Huigen said.<\/p>\n Until then, a potentially significant source of capital to help the Netherlands expand its defence industry and meet its NATO commitment could remain on the sidelines.<\/p>\n ($1 = 0.8562 euros)<\/p>\n Reporting by Mateusz Rabiega; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Susan Fenton<\/p>\n Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a> Gdansk-based news reporter, who covers financial services in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, usually appearing in Business and Markets sections. He previously reported on Polish market and CEE economies at Reuters. A journalist since 2020, Mateusz had worked in local television, and radio station in southern Poland. He graduated in Journalism and Communication Studies from University of Wroclaw, followed by Criminology from University of Gdansk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Govt talks with insurers stall over screening defence firmsDisputes also include form of investmentsPwC says Dutch defence manufacturers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1117,1118,4557,1128,4558,1129,4580,4559,4560,4561,4556,4562,4563,1130,4564,1084,1085,14,1132,4583,1110,4587,4586,1103,4595,4591,1131,4594,1106,1114,4588,1104,4601,4585,4592,4593,4590,4596,4600,4599,1133,1108,1111,1107,1116,1105,1109,1115,1113,4584,4589,1112,1086,1097,4555,435,1093,4581,4565,4566,4567,1087,4552,1119,1120,4568,1088,4569,4570,4597,4571,4572,4573,4574,4553,4554,243,1089,4582,4550,1090,4575,4576,4577,4578,4598,4551,4579,1127],"class_list":["post-7676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-aer","tag-aero","tag-anlins","tag-bact","tag-bisv","tag-biz","tag-blux","tag-bnk","tag-bnks","tag-bsvc","tag-cfocus","tag-civ","tag-cmpny","tag-cprod","tag-deal1","tag-def","tag-defbuy","tag-defence-industry","tag-destabn","tag-destabx","tag-destafa","tag-destbnx","tag-destc","tag-destcsa","tag-destd","tag-destdnp","tag-deste","tag-destfun","tag-destg","tag-destgns","tag-destgro","tag-destlby","tag-destlita","tag-destm","tag-destmtl","tag-destn","tag-desto","tag-destoil","tag-destoinn","tag-destoukbsm","tag-destpco","tag-destpge","tag-destpsc","tag-destrast","tag-destrbn","tag-destreulb","tag-destrnp","tag-destrws","tag-destrwsa","tag-destsof","tag-destu","tag-destucdptest","tag-dip","tag-emea","tag-erep","tag-eu","tag-europ","tag-ezc","tag-fin","tag-fins","tag-fund","tag-gen","tag-graphc","tag-indg","tag-inds","tag-insr","tag-intag","tag-invbis","tag-invm","tag-legal","tag-lifins","tag-lins","tag-mins","tag-mins1","tag-mtgfx","tag-mtpix","tag-nato","tag-news1","tag-nl","tag-nrlpaoinn","tag-pol","tag-privt","tag-publ","tag-pve","tag-pxp","tag-reuters-legal","tag-topicmarkets-recommended","tag-weu","tag-xpand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Mateusz](\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/resizer\/v2\/https%3A%2F%2Fauthor-service-images-prod-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub%2Freuters%2Faa4f883a-c39d-4ac0-aa0d-3c95dcfc2820.png?auth=c862472a4dd52a5e7e2b562e7a31e3ece2f4e2021dc18d3c7d39a691f524ec9d&height=120&width=120&quality=80&smart=true\")
<\/a><\/p>\n