UK - The £1.7bn (€2.5bn) John Lewis Partnership pension fund has awarded JP Morgan Asset Management a £50m Japanese active equities mandate.

"The money has been re-directed from our passive overseas equities portfolio," a spokesman for retailer John Lewis Partnership confirmed. He said the fund wanted to create a segregated, actively managed Japan equities mandate.

JP Morgan said in a press release that the defined benefit scheme's assets "have been invested in a segregated JF Higher Alpha Japanese equity portfolio".

"We were keen to have an active Japanese equity investment allocation and Hewitt assisted us with an initial list of potential managers," Andrew Chapman, Pension Investment Manager at John Lewis Partnership said.

"JF is the Asian asset management arm of JPMAM and has a longstanding reputation in the Japanese market.  After an extensive due diligence process involving five potential managers including site visits in Tokyo, we selected JF to manage the mandate."

JP Morgan Asset Management commented that they were "delighted" to have been chosen by John Lewis. The Japan equities mandate is the only portfolio the company manages for the John Lewis pension fund.

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