UK - The London Borough of Waltham Forest has awarded a £150,000 (€171,585) contract to HSBC Actuaries & Consultants for investment consultancy services to its pension fund. HSBC were chosen from five interested parties who made offers.

The services include advice on setting an investment strategy, construction of benchmarks and asset allocation, selection of investment managers and analysis of their perforrnance.

Waltham Forest said the appointment was a routine re-tendering. The previous incumbents were Mercer, who had been providing advice as part of their actuarial services. However, the council said the investment consultancy contract had been split off as a separate arrangement, on the basis of best practice.

The contract lasts three years with an option of a further two year extension.

The council said it is looking at changing the pension fund’s investment strategy in the light of the council’s needs, given recent events in the market.

The scheme, which has 15,500 members, was £200.2m in deficit as at its last triennual valuation on 31 March 2007. According to the draft statement of accounts, the scheme’s net assets fell in value by over £100m over the year to 31 March 2009, from £445.7m to £340.2m.

As at that date, the fund held £128.8m in UK equities (38.8%), £112.1m (33.8%) in overseas equities, £41.4m (12.5%) in overseas corporate bonds, £31.8m (9.6%) in property unit trusts and £14.2m in GTAA.

It retains six asset managers for its portfolio: AXA Framlington (UK equities), Bankinvest (global equities), European Credit Management (global fixed income), UBS (UK property), DTZ Investment Management (pan-European property) and Nordea (GTAA).

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