EUROPE - The £1.8bn (€1.9bn) Avon Pension Fund is looking to appoint a manager to an active currency hedging mandate to hedge against the impact of currency fluctuations for £500m of its equity investments.

The local government pension scheme (LGPS) for Bath & North East Somerset Council said it would only allow non-discretionary quantitative approaches, with passive approaches and absolute return strategies not allowed.

The mandate should hedge Avon against fluctuations to all US dollar, euro and Japanese yen denominated overseas equity, excluding fluctuations to holdings in emerging markets.

The five-year contract, estimated to be worth around £5m, will be awarded to the most economically advantageous tender.

Further details can be obtained from the council directly, with all requests due by 4 December.

Meanwhile, the £500m LGPS for the London Borough of Ealing is looking to appoint an actuary and is tendering a six-year contact.

The fund is looking to appoint an adviser with experience advising local government schemes, and any successful bidder will be expected to conduct future valuations of the scheme, advise on the admission of new bodies to the fund and on suitable future employer contributions.

The council asks that any applying company have an annual turnover of £25m and said it would not invite any company to tender that falls beneath the limit.

Additionally, applicants must hold employers' liability insurance in excess of £10m, as well as a third-party and profession indemnity insurance covering claims over £5m each.

Successful bidders will enter a framework agreement and be offered a further three-year contract upon satisfactory completion of the first three years.

Interested parties can request more details from the council and should apply by 10 December.

Meanwhile, ING Investment Management has won a €300m mandate from Dutch health insurer ONVZ.

Marco Saas, financial director at ONVZ, said the appointment of ING was the result of a need for an all-round provider.

He said they had chosen a company offering a combination of asset management, fund manager selection, investment advice and risk management.

The firm was recently awarded a €2bn mandate from the Dutch province of Gelderland.

Finally, BNP Paribas Securities Services has been appointed master custody provider for the three UK-based pension schemes maintained by IT provider ATOS Origin.

The three schemes have assets totaling £685m.