DENMARK - Nykredit, a financial services group based in Denmark, has awarded a €350m mandate to Allianz Global Investors' US Equity Strategy.

Seung Minn, senior portfolio manager and chief investment officer of the Disciplined Equities Group at RCM - an Allianz Global Investors company - beat out nearly 90 other companies in the tendering process, initiated using IPE Quest.

Nykredit, whose activities range from mortgage lending and banking to insurance and pensions, cited the investment team's long-term track record and disciplined investment process.
 
Esben Ørum Tiedemann, senior investment consultant at Nykredit Asset Management, said: "RCM were one of the products that from a qualitative and quantitative standpoint looked very interesting, and we therefore selected them including three other products for the due diligence phase.
 
"Meeting the investment team and company in San Francisco gave us an unique insight, and RCM was the perfect fit for us."

He said RCM was an experienced portfolio manager that had invested with the current philosophy and process for many years, pointing out that Minn had been in charge of the fund for more than 11 years.

He said the three-strong investment team had a good balance of skills, ranging from a quantitative background to experienced portfolio management, and cited the fact the team worked "as a boutique", but with the benefits of a larger organisation.

"Using our internal asset allocation model, which is based on the OECD CLI leading indicator, RCM's products since January 1999 have outperformed in all four different cycles," he said.

"This alternative way of analysing gives us a excellent possibility to see how the products are biased in different market environments."