EUROPE - Mercer has been appointed to provide pension administration services for EDF Energy’s three UK defined benefit schemes, the consultancy said.

Gordon Clark, partner and UK relationship manager at Mercer, said: “This appointment is a significant milestone in our long-term partnership with EDF Energy and is a great win for our UK administration outsourcing business.”

EDF Energy’s head of pensions Ian Baines said: “EDF Energy was seeking a single partner to administer its UK pension arrangements to enhance efficiency, member experience and management information.”

He praised Mercer for its competitively priced offering, long-term commitment to the market-place and servicing strategy.

Meanwhile, UK consultancy LCP has won an appointment from the trustees of the Nissan Pension Plan to give pensions investment advice.

Gavin Orpin, head of trustee investment at LCP, said: “Over the coming months, we will be working closely with the Nissan trustees to improve the efficiency of their investment arrangements. 

“We will be focusing on diversifying the growth assets and managing liability risk while retaining a straightforward and easy-to -understand approach.”

Nissan said the consultancy’s performance track record was an important factor in its decision to choose the firm for investment advice.

The Nissan Pension Plan has total assets of £800m (€962m) and covers more than 7,000 members in the UK.

Lastly, an unnamed institutional investor based in Asia is tendering a $300m (€232m) equity income mandate using IPE Quest.

The mandate is for “dividend yield within equity global developed markets”.

The investment process is to be active, using the MSCI World index as benchmark.

The minimum assets under management (AUM) for the mandate is $2bn, while minimum AUM for the firm is $5bn.

Applicants should have a track record of at least two years, but the preferred minimum track record is three years.

Performance, net of fees, should be stated up to the end of 2011.

The closing date for submissions is 2 February.

The IPE.com news team is unable to answer any further questions about IPE Quest 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.