UK – The roughly £600m (€871m) City of Westminster pension fund has axed Henderson Global Investors and Aberdeen Asset Management following a scheme restructure.

The fund – advised by Mercers – switched from a balanced to specialist approach in a move which saw Henderson and Aberdeen lose out on managing a total of around £300m.

The move also resulted in the appointment of five new fund managers, a direct global custodian, and a transition manager to effect the change.

Under the new structure, State Street and Majedie Asset Management will each run £100m UK specialist equity briefs.

Meanwhile, Newton Investment Management and AllianceBernstein each won a £120m global equities mandate, and Insight Investment was appointed manager of a £135m high alpha bond mandate.

Henderson and Aberdeen applied for the new mandates, but were unsuccessful, scheme official Ian Woodall told IPE.

Due to the reorganization of the scheme, global investment bank Lehman Brothers was appointed transition manager, while ABN Amro Mellon provided custody services.

The scheme – which has a 78-22 equity-bond split – is also considering diversifying into alternatives.

According to one report, as much as 10% of the scheme’s investment portfolio could be ploughed into real estate, hedge funds, private equity or direct currency investment.

In other news, the £300m London Borough of Redbridge has axed Capital International and Schroder Investment Management following a similar restructuring of its investment portfolio.

Capital and Schroders each lost out on managing £150m briefs. Instead, AXA, Newton and Standard Life have been appointed to run specialist mandates following the scheme’s decision to change from its balanced investment approach.

According to reports, AXA will manage an equities mandate worth 40% of the scheme’s investment portfolio. Newton will run an unconstrained portfolio, and Standard Life has been awarded a £95m UK bond brief.

Consultant firm HSBC advised the fund.

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