During Peter’s period of office, Shell’s pension fund portfolio out-performed that of most other Dutch pension funds: as noted in its yearly report, Shell’s pension portfolio earned an average annual rate of return of 6.8 percent over the period from 2001 to 2005, when Peter led the predecessor of SAMCo, as compared to 4.5 percent for the average Dutch pension fund over the same period.
In Peter’s last year, 2006, I am told that SAMCo even realized a rate of return equal to 17% – about 7 percentage points higher than the average Dutch pension fund. That is what I would call a generous farewell gift! But Peter’s strong track record was not only established in the upswing.