EUROPE - The Strathclyde Pension Fund has awarded a global equity mandate to six investment managers, after a tender attracted 16 offers.

Edinburgh Partners, Lazard Asset Management, M&G Investment Management, Oldfield Partners, Veritas Asset Management and Walter Scott & Partners were all appointed.

In its tender notice, the pension fund’s awarding authority - Glasgow City Council - said it wanted to establish a framework of unconstrained global equity managers.

The investment aim was substantial outperformance of the FTSE All-World or MSCI All Countries indices over rolling five-year periods, with a minimum target of +3%, it said.

The pension fund had been open to a wide range of investment styles.

Individual mandates were seen at between £250m (€300m) and £500m, and being awarded with a four-year tenure.

In other news, the Norfolk Pension Fund awarded currency-hedging mandates to four managers, based on an overseas equity portion of £850m.

After receiving 10 offers, the Norfolk County Council appointed Berenberg Bank, Pareto, State Street Global Advisors and Record Currency Management for the local authority’s pension fund.

The council had been aiming to set up a framework agreement comprising one or more specialist managers to implement a dynamic currency-hedging programme.

This programme was to cover the fund’s overseas equity assets, with the aim of reducing the volatility of investment returns in sterling and minimising cash outflows linked to the hedge - at the same time as capturing gains from favourable currency movements, Norwich said.

Non-discretionary quantitative, as well as discretionary approaches to dynamic currency hedging, were to be considered, but no approaches based on purely absolute return.