A German pension fund has launched a tender for a €1bn liability-driven investment (LDI) mandate using IPE Quest.
According to search QN-2385, the pension fund wants to hedge this portion of its liabilities, of which it has €3bn, against changes in interest rates.
It wants the manager to use government bonds – invested as buy-and-maintain assets – and swaps to complete the hedge.
It has specified that the portfolio be managed in a risk-controlled manner “in the sense that no active bets on the movements and shape of the interest rate curve or currencies will be taken intentionally”.
There is to be no exposure to non-government related companies unless the exposure can be classified as money market positions.
More information about the mandate is available via IPE Quest. Interested parties have until 8 January to apply, and should state performance gross of fees to 31 October 2017.
Also on IPE Quest, a large Swiss pension fund is searching for a large cap domestic equities manager for a CHF550m-CHF600m (€471m-€514m) passive mandate.
According to search QN-2384 the benchmark is the SPI20. Managers should have at least CHF10bn of assets under management, and CHF5bn for Swiss equities.
A track record of five to 10 years is preferred, but three years is the minimum.
The asset owner does not want a tracking error of more than 0.2%.
The deadline for applications is 15 December.
A Scandinavian foundation has put out initial feelers for a global large cap equities mandate via IPE Quest’s Discovery service. It is considering investing $30m (€25.4m) in an active fund, according to DS-2382.
The portfolio should be diversified with at least 20-25 stocks from several sectors and regions. The foundation has said it prefers a flat fee.
IPE Quest mandate searches from a central and eastern European pension fund close on Friday, while the deadline for a €10m Irish residential property mandate is on 18 December.
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 .
ERAFP currency hedging mandate
In France, €28bn public service pension scheme ERAFP has tendered out foreign exchange hedging mandates for around €2bn.
The hedging strategy should be passive and, where applicable, dynamic.
In a statement, it said the macroeconomic situation in recent years had brought to light the importance of currency risk incurred by investors in their portfolios.
“In this context,” it added, “management of foreign exchange hedging for the assets in ERAFP’s consolidated portfolio has three main objectives: first, reduce the overall exposure to foreign exchange risk by decreasing the exposure to foreign currencies; secondly, better coordinate foreign exchange hedging and, lastly, reduce the cost of this hedging.”
It wants to select three investment companies: one active manager and two on standby.
The selected active contract holder will be tasked with creating and managing a mutual fund for managing the foreign exchange risk of ERAFP’s assets; the notional amount hedged at the start of the mutual fund’s life is expected to be around €2bn.
The submission deadline is 19 January.
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