Alstom, the manufacturer of infrastructures for the rail transport sector, has appointed Mercer to provide fiduciary management services for three of its UK pension schemes with assets totalling £1.6bn (€1.9bn).
The trustees selected Mercer following a review of its in-house asset management arrangements and were supported by PwC throughout the process, it was announced.
Mercer will provide portfolio management, operational and implementation support to help deliver the trustees’ long-term objectives.
The appointment further grows Mercer’s fiduciary business which now totals £58bn in the UK and $415bn of assets under management globally as of 31 December 2021, the firm said.
Ken Brundle, chair of Alstom’s Common Investment Fund, said: “After an exhausting and highly competitive tender process we have selected Mercer as our fiduciary manager. We believe Mercer is best placed to help us move through the next part of our journey for these schemes.”
He added that key to Mercer’s appointment was its flexible and collaborative approach to “help us design and implement our specific journey”.
Dan Melley, partner and head of UK investments at Mercer, said the appointment “reconfirms the momentum we have seen in the market of £1bn+ schemes reconsidering their governance approach. We expect to see this trend continue”.
Dutch scheme selects Symbiotics for impact investment
Pensioenfonds Detailhandel, the Dutch scheme for the retail industry, will invest €100m with Symbiotics as part of its real economy investment strategy.
The pension scheme previously announced a partnership with Polestar Capital and Tikehau Capital to invest in their respective impact funds.
The three funds will be authorised to invest €100m each in impactful startups, scale-ups and SMEs in the Netherlands, Europe and developing countries, it announced.
Symbiotics provides loans to SMEs in developing countries. The investments contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
In line with Detailhandel’s investment policy, the company focuses on SDGs 8 (Decent work and economic growth) and will also look for investment opportunities to contribute to SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production) and SDG 13 (Climate action).
Henk Groot, the scheme’s head of investment, said: “This investment is in line with Pensioenfonds Detailhandel’s objective of creating targeted and measurable value in the real economy with a small proportion of its investments.”
European schemes search for equities, property managers
An institutional investor based in Switzerland and a pension fund based in Belgium have used IPE Quest to search for asset managers for equities and real estate, respectively.
According to search QN-2758, an institutional investor based in Switzerland is planning to invest €250m in an all caps core equity strategy following the MSCI EMU Index.
When applying for this tender, performance as of 28 February 2022 should be stated and participating managers will need to have at least €1bn in assets under management (AUM) for the asset class, with a minimum of at least €10bn in total AUM.
Participating managers should also have a minimum track record of three years but 10 years is preferred.
The deadline to participate has been set for 13 April 5pm UK time.
As for the property mandate, the QN-2759 tender notice is for a €10m European direct residential real estate core strategy.
Only open-ended funds (or open-ended funds that launch in 2022) in residential real estate are being considered.
When applying for this tender, performance as of 31 December 2021 should be stated and participating managers will need to have at least €500m in assets under management (AUM) for the asset class, with a minimum of at least €5bn in total AUM.
Participating managers should also have a minimum track record of two years.
The deadline to apply is 12 April 5pm UK time.
The IPE news team is unable to answer any further questions about IPE Quest, Discovery, or Innovation 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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