UK – The £9.8bn (€11.7bn) West Midlands Pension Fund has appointed six managers to an emerging market (EM) equity framework agreement initially worth £830m.
Concluding a tender process launched late last year that sought to appoint 4-6 managers to the framework, the local authority scheme announced that F&C and Investec Asset Management, Fisher Investments, AGF, Mondrian Investment Partners and Martin Currie Investment Management had been selected from 19 applicants in total.
In a statement, the fund said only three of the six managers would initially receive funding, but that it would allocate £830m – up by £80m from its initial estimate – to the managers.
Tony Doyle, senior investment manager for equity at West Midlands, noted that the new framework agreement was set to replace its existing line-up of EM managers, but declined to name the three companies that would be allocated mandates.
In its initial tender, the fund administered by Wolverhampton City Council said it was seeking a 3% annual outperformance above that of a “broad” global EM equity index over a three-year rolling period – since clarified as being the FTSE All World Emerging Market index.
It said the investment should be handled as a segregated account by any of the selected managers and stressed that selection for the framework agreement did not mean managers would be awarded any mandates.
The decade-long framework could earn the selected managers as much as £3.3m in annual fees, with the fund deciding to allocate £80m more than first planned last year.
When contacted by IPE, F&C and Martin Currie declined to comment, while Mondrian referred to the contract award notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union and declined to comment further.
Investec, Fisher and AGF did not respond prior to publication when asked if they would be among the three managers to see part of the £830m award.
West Midlands was recently among the five local authority schemes to commit £50m to a £250m infrastructure fund.
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