OREANDA-NEWS. December 17, 2012. Otkritie Financial Corporation and LUKOIL-GARANT Non-Governmental Pension Fund have announced the beginning of a strategic partnership in managing private pension assets.

As part of the partner relations, LUKOIL-GARANT will draw on Otkritie's experience in managing pension reserves and pension savings, and on Otkritie's expertise in managing and developing financial businesses.

Also, Otkritie will soon become a shareholder in Pension Capital, a company acting as the administrator of LUKOIL-GARANT. The fund will continue to be managed by the executive board headed by Sergey Erlik.

"We are happy to have Otkritie as our partner," says Sergey Erlik, President of LUKOIL-GARANT." "Otkritie has been a leader in terms of return on Russian pension fund invested savings since 2004, and has successfully managed pension assets under a project carried out with the Non-Governmental Pension Fund of the Electric Power Industry. Becoming a partner with Otkritie will give LUKOIL-GARANT a new impetus for business enhancement."

"Developing pension savings management is a key element of our business strategy," says Ruben Aganbegyan, Chairman of Otkritie Management Board.

"The potential to use long-term money from pension fund assets is of strategic importance for the Russian economy today; and our cooperation with one of the country's largest non-governmental pension funds will become a part of the process."

"We believe that Otkritie's participation in the fund's operations is an important step towards continuing the development of our partner relations with LUKOIL-GARANT," says Anatoliy Moskalenko, Vice-President for Human Resources and Organizational Development." "Working together with Otkritie will enable us to push our standards of servicing the pension fund clients, including our employees, to a new level."