UK – J Walter Thompson Trustees has split its £50m pension fund into three separate specialist portfolios - following the closure of the fund, dropping Schroder Investment Management in the process.

Schroders formerly handled the whole portfolio on a balanced basis.
However, the trustees decided to divide it between Rothschild Asset Management (RAM) – which was handed a £20m bond brief, while Deutsche Asset Management and Royal London Asset Management were both allotted property and UK equities briefs respectively.

“ As a mature fund, the performance of our fixed interest portfolio is of critical and increasing importance. Therefore we decided to appoint a specialist bond manager and conducted an extensive and thorough review of the market,” says John Heatly, chairman of the trustees of the JWT fund.

Rothschild’s portion will be invested in a combination of UK gilts, overseas bonds, corporate bonds and cash. The benchmark consists of 60% UK gilts, 30% corporate bonds and 10% overseas bonds with an objective to outperform it by 0.75% a year.

HSBC Actuaries and Consultants assisted the fund in its review.

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