UK - The London Borough of Bexley is seeking a specialist bond manager for its local government pension scheme (LGPS), while the Pilkington Superannuation Scheme has awarded a core credit mandate.

Bexley Council is seeking a bond manager to run a portfolio valued at around £50m (€56m), which is equivalent to 11% of the total fund assets.

The proposed mandate is for core bonds with an outperformance target of up to 1% a year net of fees, and it will be measured against a composite benchmark expected to consist of 50% gilts and 50% corporate bonds.

Details from Bexley's latest statement of accounts to 31 March 2009 measured the net assets of the scheme at £326.3m, while the ongoing funding deficit was estimated at £183m at 31 December 2009 resulting in a funding level of around 70%.

The closing date for tender submissions is 9 May 2010, and further information can be obtained from Hewitt Associates.

Elsewhere, the Pilkington Superannuation Scheme has appointed Henderson Global Investors to run a core credit mandate.

The pension scheme, valued at £1.035bn at the end of December 2008, awarded the investment manager a £107m core credit mandate that will be invested in Henderson's £576m Long Dated Credit Fund. The fund is managed by Philip Payne and is benchmarked against iBoxx GBP Non-Gilt +15 yrs, investing primarily in long-dated sterling-denominated investment grade corporate bonds.

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