UK – The Pension Protection Fund, the government’s pensions lifeboat, will assign roughly a third of its £140m (€205m) in initial levy funds to Goldman Sachs Asset Management, according to the PPF’s Business Plan 2006/2007.

The remaining two-thirds has been split between Insight Investments and PIMCO.

GSAM – a deferred appointment – was always going to receive some funds, a PPF spokesperson told IPE.

“But we had to be in receipt of enough funds to make it worthwhile exploiting their approach,” he added.

In 2005/6, the PPF board appointed PIMCO, Insight and GSAM as external fund managers. Meanwhile, State Street was named custodian and transition manager for the fund.

The fixed income managers will be allowed to invest in fixed rate, variable rate, and floating rate securities issued or guaranteed by governments, government-related organisations, corporations and securitized issuers.

Mercer Investment Consulting advised the fund in its allocation to GSAM, the PPF told IPE.

According to the PPF’s Business Plan, the levy estimate for 2006/7 is £575m. These funds will be added to the existing levy investments.

The fund added that it would also consider appointing a second transition manager in anticipation of greater volumes of pension scheme asset transfers in 2007/8.

IPE reported last month that the PPF is due to appoint specialist fund managers from next year. The move would follow a shift a liability-driven investment strategy.

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