UK - The pension fund of Welsh local authority Gwynedd Council is searching for a global equity manager to look after approximately 20% of its assets, following an overhaul of its strategy which led to reduced roles for UBS and Capital International.

Details of a tender notice issued by the £813m public sector pension fund state Gwynedd is looking for a manager to deliver 2-4% outperformance of the MSCI AC World index on £150m in assets.

This new sum is the result of an asset allocation review in 2006 which saw the fund shift from a largely passive strategy dominated by Barclays Global Investors and Capital International, alongside UBS as its global emerging markets active equity manager and Partners Group as private equity manager.

Officials state in the latest annual report these changes were made, following consultation with its investment consultant Hymans Robertson "because of the manager's performance".

UBS is still employed to look after a 10% allocation to property, and Capital now manages just 20% of its fund compared with 31% prior to the changes.

Details of the pensions committee notes released for public viewing today confirm the deadline for receipt of returned questionnaires is 25 October while those invited to produce RFPs must return documents by 17 December as the committee intends to make a decision by the end of January 2009.

Legal & General was temporarily appointed to look after the additional equity assets so is now responsible for 35% of the fund, but will see this reduced back to 15% once the new appointment is made.

BGI will continue to manage 35% of the assets, as at present, but has the weighting split as 58% equity and 42% bonds.

The exact asset allocation of the fund is 75% equity, 15% fixed income (including inflation-linked) and 10% property, compared with the previous weighting of 75% equity and 25% bonds.

The Gwynedd fund was 84% funded at its 31 March 2007 actuarial, and had a deficit of £161m.

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