UK - Powys Council is seeking a global equity manager to manage a £27m (€28.9m) mandate, while the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) is tendering an actuarial contract.

The £280m Welsh pension fund is offering the long-only global equity mandate as a partial replacement after terminating a £39.9m active global equity mandate run by Alliance Bernstein and a £7.3m Global Tactical Asset Allocation (GTAA) portfolio run by Goldman Sachs.

Following the termination of the contracts the assets were placed with the pension fund’s passive manager Barclays Global Investors (BGI), however following an earlier appointment of Hewitt Associates as the new investment adviser to the scheme in January, Powys is now seeking a new global equity manager. (See earlier IPE article: Hewitt replaces Watson as Powys adviser)

Powys Council said the £27m mandate will require the successful manager to outperform the benchmark world index by 2% net of fees, and it must report to the scheme directly on at least a semi-annual basis.

Meanwhile, RBKC is re-tendering the actuarial services contract for its £409.6m pension scheme, valued at between £250,000 and £500,000, to begin on 1 October 2009 for a period of six years.

The tender notice from RBKC follows the recent appointment of Hymans Robertson as the pension scheme’s investment consultant in January, and runs alongside the council’s search for a global custodian ahead of the expiry of its existing contract with HSBC later this year. (See earlier IPE articles: Hymans replaces P-Solve at Kensington and Kensington seeks custodian and increases equities)

Further information and the Pre-Qualifying Questionnaire (PQQ) for the Powys mandate can be obtained from etenderwales by the closing date of 23 April 2009, while the deadline for submissions to the RBKC search is 18 May 2009.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Nyree Stewart on + 44 (0)20 7261 4618 or email nyree.stewart@ipe.com

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