Greater Manchester appoints managers to £600m equity framework

Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) has appointed three managers to a global equity framework agreement potentially worth £600m (€753.5m), doubling the number of potential external managers.

The local authority scheme – at £12.6bn, one of the UK’s largest – said last July it was hoping for applications from at least three managers, but it received expressions of interest from a total of 11 managers.

The final framework, which has been in place since late last month, named Baillie Gifford, Franklin Templeton Investment Management and Investec Asset Management as three managers potentially eligible for the long-only active equity mandate.

If the mandate is seeded, the managers will be expected to outperform the MSCI All Countries World index by 2-4% over a three-year period.

The fund said it would not place an upper limit on the lifetime of any mandate, adding that any award would be in place for at least three years, with a review of fees at the end of each three-year period.

It is unknown which of the three managers have been appointed to manage the portfolio, or whether the framework agreement was meant as an internal exercise, or will be open to other local authorities.

At the end of last March, GMPF managed £1.7bn of assets internally, with the remaining £10.8bn overseen by three external managers.

UBS Global Asset Management was in charge £6.2bn in assets, nearly half the fund’s assets under management.

Legal & General Investment Management had mandates worth £2.6bn, while Capital International was in charge of £1.9bn in mandates.

The three managers have been in place since a review of the fund’s management arrangements during the 2000-01 financial year.

In November, the fund also confirmed it would outsource the management of its direct property portfolio.