IRELAND – Ireland's National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF) is tendering to appoint three new transition managers as it looks to refresh its manager panel after five years in the role.

The country's National Treasury Management Agency, handling the tender on behalf of the €14bn NPRF, said the framework agreement would run for four years.

The current transition panel comprising State Street, Nomura International and Citigroup, has been in place since October 2007.

Their four-year contract was last year renewed for a further 12 months, a spokesman for the fund said.

However, State Street was recently suspended from the panel after the country's Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General found the NPRF was overcharged while the company handled €4.7bn of assets between February and May last year.

In 2011, the fund was forced to liquidate €10bn of holdings to comply with the terms of Ireland's bailout by the European Union and IMF. 

In the report, the Comptroller General said State Street soon repaid €2.65m worth of non-contractual charges.

According to the NPRF's annual report for 2011, the sum was released in two payments of €5.5bn and €4.5bn in February and April of that year.

It noted at the time that the transition had been "satisfactory", with the overall cost of the liquidation – counting market impact, cost and taxes – only standing at 0.2% of the €10bn mandate.

Managers interested in applying for a position on the new transition management panel have until 16 January to do so.

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