UK – Deutsche Asset Management, State Street Global Advisers and Barclays Global Investors have lost equity mandates worth a combined £160m (€231m) after a shake-up at Shropshire County Council Pension Fund.

Majedie Asset Management and Goldman Sachs Asset Management have been selected in their place, after the council, managing a £670m pension fund, conducted a review of its UK equity portfolio. It was advised by the Russell Investment Group.

An employee of the pension fund told IPE that the changes had “not necessarily” been prompted by performance issues but by a willingness to review the UK portfolio.

Majedie will manage £50m. GSAM, which won a £55m US enhanced index mandate in 2003 from the scheme, will also now run a £110m UK quantitative equity mandate.

Before the review the DeAM, SSGA and BGI each managed one third of the UK equity portfolio.

The UK quantitative mandate aims at achieving a tracking error of 2.5%-3% by combining traditional analysis with quantitative modelling, GSAM said in a statement. The overall performance target is one percent net of fees over the FTSE 350 Index.

Both GSAM and Majedie will start managing the money in March, the pension fund employee told IPE.

The fund allocates 60% to equities, 25% to bonds, five percent to real estate and 10% to hedge funds.

Spokespersons for SSGA and BGI were not available for comment, while DeAM declined to comment.

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