LGPS Central is looking for active managers to run a £2bn (€2.2bn) global investment grade corporate bond fund.

The tender, aided by IPE Quest, marks the latest step in the pooling of assets held by the consortium’s nine local authority pension fund members. Together they have £40bn in assets under management.

The corporate bond tender is in line with previously outlined plans to roll out a number of pooled fixed income funds next year.

According to the IPE Quest notice for the corporate bond tender, LGPS Central was looking for managers to be able to demonstrate a “consistent, robust, repeatable investment process” and an actively managed portfolio.

Responsible investment would need to be part of the investment process and full transparency on a look-through basis would need to be provided with the fund’s custodian.

The pension manager was also looking for a “low cost, fully transparent, value for money” offering.

Third parties have been invited to tender through a pre-qualification questionnaire process. Successful applications would then be invited to complete a request for proposal before a “competitive dialogue” during final interviews and selection.

LGPS Central specified that interested parties should tender using only the following e-mail address: globaligcorpbondfund@lgpscentral.co.uk.

The deadline for submitting pre-qualification questionnaires is 10 December at noon UK time.

Since receiving regulatory authorisation in January, LGPS Central has launched three pooled equity funds and announced the managers of another equity fund, which together are expected to hold £14bn of investments from its partner local government pension scheme (LGPS) funds.

When the procurement process for LGPS Central’s global active equity multi-manager fund was under way 150 fund  managers from across the world expressed an initial interest in tendering for the mandate.

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.

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