GLOBAL – A European pension fund is looking to appoint a loan manager to help it build up a $100m (€75m) bank loan portfolio, using IPE-Quest.

For search QN1284, the European scheme said it hoped to appoint either a European or US loan manager experienced with secured loans and bonds to help oversee the mandate, aimed at relative value opportunities.

The fund said it would consider investment across the continent, as well as exposure to bank loans from the US, benchmarking performance against the Credit Suisse Leveraged Loan index.

While the mandate is to be actively managed, the fund has not set a minimum asset under management threshold for applying companies or their existing mandates.

Neither did it set an absolute minimum track record in managing similar portfolios, although the fund said it would prefer companies with at least three years’ experience.

Interested parties have until 28 February to apply, stating their performance gross of fees to the end of December.

Meanwhile, the £1.5bn (€1.8bn) Royal County of Berkshire pension fund has appointed 15 asset managers to a new equity framework, five more than initially envisaged.

The growth equity framework, first tendered over last summer, aimed to appoint a number of managers the local authority fund could select to oversee a segregated or pooled investment of up to £70m.

It said at the time that any pooled option should preferably be UCITS compliant.

Nick Greenwood, pension fund manager at Berkshire’s administering authority, said that no immediate allocation to any of the managers was on the horizon, but noted that it would allow the fund to replace any existing manager if needed.

He added that 15 managers were chosen due to the quality of responses, allowing the fund to pick managers that targeted different regions and had differeng philosophies - but also that the selected houses all met the criteria set prior to tender.

The five-year framework has now been announced, with the roster only including two of the fund’s 18 existing asset managers.

According to the most recent annual report, covering the 12 months to the end of March, administering authority Windsor and Maidenhead had contracts with Morgan Stanley Investment Management and William Blair International – both overseeing part of its emerging market equity portfolio, and both chosen for the framework.

Additional managers on the framework include Allianz Global Investors, Amundi and Investec Asset Management, as well as JP Morgan Asset Management, Kleinwort Benson Investors in Dublin and Natixis Global Asset Management.

Threadneedle Asset Management is also in contention, as is Martin Currie Investment Management, Jupiter Asset Management and Janus Capital International.

Artisan Partners and Trilogy Global Advisors round out the list.

The IPE.com news team is unable to answer any further questions about IPE-Quest 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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