UK – The £210m (€308m) pension fund of construction company Skanska UK has invested £80m to fund a pooled specialist UK bond portfolio with Standard Life Investments.

The mandate was financed with new money and the fund continues to invest with Baillie Gifford & Co. for UK equities and Legal & General Investment Management for UK and overseas equities.

The appointment follows a tendering and evaluation process involving a number of investment houses and a final short list of three.

Andrew Sutherland, Standard Life’s head of credit, will be the lead fund manager. He’ll be supported by Jonathan Gibbs and Craig MacDonald.

Standard Life’s investment director for fixed income, Malcolm Jones, said: “We’re very happy with this new partnership.”

Aided by consultants Lane Clark & Peacock, the trustees of the fund selected Standard Life as it “scored highly on the criteria” given, Skanska told IPE.

The trustees looked at a range of criteria including investment process and philosophy, quality of individuals and charging structure.

Earlier this month the £2.8bn South Yorkshire Pension Fund said it was seeking an advisor for a £220m commercial property portfolio currently managed by Standard Life Investments.

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