GLOBAL – PKA, an administration company for occupational pension funds in Denmark, has awarded the UK subsidiary of US-based Acadian Asset Management a managed-volatility mandate worth “several hundred million dollars”.
Anders Blomgreen Petersen, portfolio manager at PKA, said the company had been working for the past year to identify a strategy for allocating to “return sources”, rather than making strategic allocations to regions.
“Our objective was to find a strategy that would help meet our goal of significantly reducing risk within our pension plans without compromising returns,” he said.
He said PKA’s change in strategy was a response to heightened correlations within equity portfolios in recent years.
Ross Dowd, head of global marketing and client service at Acadian, said his company had collaborated closely with PKA to develop a customised application of Acadian’s managed-volatility approach.
Acadian currently manages $5bn (€3.7bn) in managed-volatility strategies for clients in Asia, Europe and the US.
PKA is owned by five occupational pension funds with a total of 250,000 members, mainly employees in the public social and health sectors, and makes investments on their behalf.
At the end of 2011, the market value of its assets was approximately DKK153.5bn (€20.6bn).
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