A Swiss institutional investor is looking for asset managers to run a $50m (€40m) portfolio of long-only global equities, according to a request for information (RFI) on manager search service IPE-Quest.

The closing date for responses is 10 December.

Managers should invest opportunistically, using an active process, and have at least $500m under management in this asset type, according to the RFI.

The investor prefers asset managers with a track record of at least seven years, but added that this was a soft limit.

Separately on IPE-Quest, an unnamed Continental European pension fund is searching for managers for a €450m-900m global emerging markets government debt mandate.

Managers should employ a broadly diversified style and a passive process.

The benchmark for the portfolio is to be the JP Morgan GBI-EM Global Diversified (JGENVUEG) local currency, unhedged, according to the IPE-Quest entry.

The mandate will be passive, with the goal of replicating the main characteristics of the benchmark, the search specified.

Managers should not use leverage, and can use bonds with maturity of less than 13 months.

The deadline for responses is 17 December.

In other mandate news, the City of Zurich Pension Fund and adviser group Tages Capital have awarded mandates to fund administrator Citco.

The Zurich pension fund has contracted Citco to provide administration, custody and related financial services to its $1.3bn (€1bn) hedge fund portfolios.

Tages Capital has awarded Citco an administration and custody mandate for two of its hedge fund portfolios.

Richard Silver, CFO at Tages, said the company – which allocated assets to alternative investment funds on behalf of institutional clients – picked Citco because of its “strong infrastructure, technological excellence and client-driven solutions”.

Citco said it had recently decided to get out of the sub-custody business for financial institutions because of the commoditisation of the business and the lack of ancillary services attached to it.

William Keunen, global director at Citco Fund Services, said: “We intend to now focus fully on servicing our institutional investor clients with our integrated solution.”

Meanwhile, the HSBC Bank (UK) pension scheme has chosen Fulcrum Asset Management to manage what Fulcrum described as a “significant” alternative beta mandate.

Neither party would disclose the actual size of the mandate.

The asset manager said it would manage the mandate under its multi-asset volatility strategy, aimed at producing absolute returns from volatility exposures across a range of asset types.

It said it was chosen by the £20bn (€25bn) pension scheme because of its multi-asset approach, absolute return focus and low correlation to traditional asset classes.

The pension fund said it was allocating to the new mandate from its cash reserves, so the move did not signify any change in strategy or asset manager. 

Mark Thompson, CIO at the HSBC Pensions Trust, said the multi-asset volatility strategy was an interesting and innovative addition to the return-seeking element of the portfolio that also brought big diversification benefits.

Andrew Stevens, Fulcrum’s chief executive, said: “This appointment reflects the continued interest in our alternative beta offering from institutional investors looking to diversify their portfolios and access new sources of returns.”

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