UK - The £1.36bn (€1.9bn) Council of Rhondda Cynon Taf pension fund has hired Record Currency Management for its first foray into currency investment.

This new mandate is part of a larger portfolio review to introduce more diversification which also led to ING real estate being awarded a £100m UK property mandate earlier this month. [see IPE coverage: ING real estate wins £100m Welsh mandate]

"The review highlighted that being heavily exposed to any one asset class exposed the fund to a higher degree of risk than a more diversified structure," Yvonne Keitch, senior accountant in the Treasury & Pension Fund Investments department at Rhondda Cynon Taf, explained to IPE.

The Record brief is for an active currency pooled fund to provide a return in the region of 20% pa above LIBOR.

Elsewhere, Germany's Landkreis Schaumburg has hired the insurance company Volksfürsorge Deutsche Lebensversicherungs AG to provide a pension scheme ('Unterstützungskasse') for the workers at the newly-created limited company for workers in nursing homes.

Until now, the workers had been employed by the local government and were covered by the German public supplementary insurer VBL's occupational relief fund.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Barbara Ottawa on +44 (0)20 7261 4618 or email barbara.ottawa@ipe.com

Topics