GLOBAL - A Swiss institutional investor has tendered a mandate for the management of a $150m (€118m) global small-cap equity portfolio investing in developed markets, using IPE-Quest.

The mandate is for an active management style, according to search QN1240.

Candidates must have at least a five-year track record in the region and assets under management of at least $500m.

The successful manager will be expected to achieve a 2% outperformance of the benchmark, the MSCI World Small Cap index, with a maximum annual tracking error of 8%.

Two possible offers will be considered.

The first is a single discretionary or systematic strategy consistently applied to the entire universe.

The second aggregates two or three internal teams managing regional small-cap strategies, including one for the US.

As a whole, the teams should be able to cover most of the investment universe.

For Case II, the team or strategy for the US should have a track record of at least five years and $500m in assets under management.

A pure regional proposal will not be considered.

Knowledge and experience with Swiss institutional funds and/or institutional clients is an advantage.

Interested parties have until 5 June to submit completed RFI questionnaires and performance to 31 March.

In other news, Northern Trust has won a mandate to provide custody and performance measurement services for the Alcatel Pension Scheme's £700m (€866m) of assets.

Bill Kear, pensions manager at scheme, said: "We appointed Northern Trust based on its conservative business model, financial strength, focus on the pensions sector and integrated reporting capability.

"They understand our unique requirements and challenges and can offer us a range of cost-effective asset servicing solutions to help us manage our business."

The IPE.com news team is unable to answer any further questions about IPE-Quest 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.