Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, set up in 2017 to pool the assets of 12 UK local authority pension funds, has launched a tender for a multi-manager to run part of a £5bn (€5.7bn) global equities allocation.

In a tender notice published this week, Border to Coast said it intended to appoint four or five direct global equity managers and one multi-manager, with each running between £500m and £1.5bn. The initial focus is on the multi-manager part of the mandate.

“The key objective of the multi-manager mandate will be to provide exposure to specialist investment strategies that may not otherwise be captured in a predominantly large cap, global equity portfolio,” the tender notice stated. “For example, giving exposure to small caps or regional specialists.”

The appointed multi-manager will be responsible for manager selection, portfolio construction and implementation, Border to Coast said, and may be asked to provide advice, research or dealing support to the other global equity managers.

The global equity fund is slated for launch in mid-2019, Border to Coast said, once the multi-manager and direct managers have been selected.

More information on the tender is available here.

When it launches, the global equity fund will be the fourth pooled fund launched by Border to Coast for its 12 Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) clients.

In the last quarter of 2018 it launched a £1.2bn UK equities fund, run by Baillie Gifford, Janus Henderson and UBS Asset Management.

This followed its first two funds, formed in July 2018 by pooling internally managed UK and non-UK equity allocations worth £7bn from the pension schemes for Teesside, East Riding and South Yorkshire.

Border to Coast aims to pool approximately £46bn of assets from the LGPS funds for Bedfordshire, Cumbria, Durham, East Riding, Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, Northumberland, South Yorkshire, Surrey, Teeside, Tyne and Wear, and Warwickshire.

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