UK - Towers Watson has been appointed delegated CIO of car manufacturer Jaguar's UK pension scheme, the consultancy has said.

The defined benefit scheme, which closed to new entrants in April 2010, has assets under management of £2bn (€2.3bn) and joins the Land Rover Pension Scheme in granting a delegated mandate to the consultancy.

Chris Ford, EMEA head of investment at Towers Watson, said the consultancy would now oversee £4.1bn worth of assets for Jaguar Land Rover's UK business.

He added: "In the fast-growing fiduciary management and delegated consulting market, the combination of exceptional clarity of performance goals versus liabilities and a highly dynamic relationship is very appealing for many funds."

It is understood Towers Watson has won four delegated mandates in recent months, with globally delegated assets under management exceeding $50bn (€37.8bn).

The consultancy was last year revealed to be launching a separate fiduciary team, with Chris Mansi appointed chief investment officer for the business.

In December, Ford said the separation would not create two independent entities, with both advisory and delegated teams using the same capital markets and economics research.

However, he said the fiduciary management team was obligated "at every point" to be applying the correct level of resource to a delegated fund, saying it was not viable to have fiduciary team members "dragged off" to work for other clients as needs arose.

Towers Watson had previously been appointed delegated CIO of the £3.3bn Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund, having previously acted as the scheme's investment adviser.

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