UK - Hertfordshire County Council pension fund has appointed three new global equity investment managers on a £9.4m (€11.9m) contract, which includes a replacement for Capital International.

The investment sub-committee of the £2.2bn local government pension scheme met in February to interview a shortlist of global equity managers and to review the existing manager selection to decide which to retain following recent poor performance.

As a result, Hertfordshire split a £9.4m contract between Deutsche Asset Management, JP Morgan Asset Management and RCM, with each manager running a global equity contract valued at approximately £3.1m, as part of a change in equity strategy. (See earlier IPE article: Hertfordshire issues global equities tender)

Minutes from the last investment committee meeting for the pension fund, held in March, showed the sub-committee had recommended two managers - Capital International and Schroders Investment Management - should not be retained after April 1 2008 based largely on "recent longer-term bad performance".

Hertfordshire's manager selection previously included two active global equity portfolios managed by Capital International and Alliance Bernstein, however Capital International, which managed £384.5m of assets at the end of March 2006, has been dismissed, while Alliance Bernstein will be subject to a further review in the next year.

Meanwhile, as the investment committee appointed three global equity managers - bringing the total to four - the pension fund also decided to reduce its three UK equity managers to two - Jupiter Asset Management and Baillie Gifford.

The pension fund confirmed in the minutes Schroders would not be retained after April 1, but added Baille Gifford would also face a further engagement review after 12 months.

In addition, the pension fund - which at its last actuarial review on March 31 2007 was 85% funded with a deficit of £387.9m - commissioned a report from Mercer, its investment adviser, on currency hedging, to include potential costs and the benefits of different hedging approaches.

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