Honda Group-UK Pension Scheme Trustee has selected Mercer to provide fiduciary management services for its £1.7bn (€2bn) UK pension scheme.
The scheme picked Mercer following a review of its own governance approach, it was announced.
Mercer will provide operational and implementation support to help the Honda scheme focus on its strategic funding objectives.
The appointment further grows Mercer’s fiduciary business which is on track to fund around £7bn in UK fiduciary management assets in 2021, the consultancy said.
Building on its global capabilities – $400bn (€350bn) of assets under management – the firm’s Total UK AUM now stands at £59bn as of 30 September 2021.
Mike Godfrey, chair of the Honda Trustee investment sub-committee, said: “We were looking for a partner to help us achieve our investment objectives for the scheme. The Mercer team gave us the confidence that they have the skills and expertise to deliver a highly bespoke solution, specific to our requirements.”
He added that a key element to Mercer’s appointment was “understanding of our needs and the quality of the bespoke solution to achieve our objectives, including the continued integration of ESG and climate change considerations into our investment strategy”.
Dan Melley, partner and head of UK investments at Mercer, expects the trend towards larger schemes using fiduciary management solutions to continue.
He said that “market uncertainty, governance burdens and increased focus on ESG integration seem to be driving renewed consideration of fiduciary management solutions”. Melley added that there is “great opportunity to support trustees of defined benefit schemes in reviewing their governance structures as they plan their ‘end game’ solutions”.
Pension fund seeks EM managers to invest £200m
A pension fund based in Switzerland has used IPE Quest to search for asset managers for an emerging markets (EM) all cap equity mandate that could be worth up to $200m.
According to search QN-2739, the fund is seeking fund managers to invest in an active strategy following the MSCI Emerging Markets – Net Return as benchmark.
Interested participants need to state performance as of 30 September 2021 and should have at least $500m of assets under management for the stated asset class, with a minimum of $5bn in total AUM.
The pension scheme is also requiring a minimum of three years of absolute track record, but five years is preferred.
The deadline to participate in the search has been set for 23 November at 5pm UK time.
The IPE news team is unable to answer any further questions about IPE Quest, Discovery, or Innovation tender notices to protect the interests of clients conducting the search. To obtain information directly from IPE Quest, please contact Jayna Vishram on +44 (0) 20 3465 9330 or email jayna.vishram@ipe-quest.com.
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