UK - Essex County Council is searching for an asset manager to look after up to £300m (€375m) of its £3.1bn in pension fund assets via a global equity mandate.

Details of the tender notice reveal the scheme - advised by Hymans Roberson - is looking to invest between £100m and £00m in active global equities and the manager is required to outperform the MSCI All-Companies World index by 2-4% over a rolling 3-5 year period.

The pension fund's Statement of Investment Principles indicates the fund is looking to achieve a target asset allocation of 35% to global equities, however, its actual allocation was 37.2% by 31 March 2007 - the date of its last actuarial valuation when data revealed the pension fund had a £782m deficit and was therefore just 79.6% funded.

Its remaining asset allocation is split as 25% UK equity, 6% to shareholder activism funds, 12% to property, 5% to LIBOR+, 4% to private equity, 3.5% to UK index-0linked, 3.5% to UK gilts, 3.5% to UK corporate bonds and 2.5% to infrastructure.

Tender submissions must be presented to Hymans Robertson by 1 December 2008.

Elsewhere, Wirral Borough Council has appointed bfinance to build a consultancy framework for the selection of investment managers for the Merseyside pension fund.

And the £500m London Borough of Barnet has appointed HSBC Actuaries and Consultants to act as an independent pension fund investment adviser.

Topics