UK - The London Borough of Havering has issued a tender for a multi-asset absolute return bond manager to run around 5% of the fund, alongside a search for a passive equities manager. East Sussex Council is seeking a provider of a corporate governance overlay service for its pension fund, while Lincolnshire County Council is looking for a bond manager.

Havering, which is responsible for administering the £283.6m (€313.1m) Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is searching for two new investment managers.

The multi-asset, absolute return mandate will have an initial value of between £14-16m and have a strategy combining exposure to a "diverse range of asset classes" including a 'meaningful' allocation to alternatives, through a pooled vehicle.

It is expected the mandate will be funded by a five percentage point reduction in the bonds weighting, currently run by Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), to 25%. The contract is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2010 with a yet to be finalised performance target of +3-5% above sterling LIBOR.

The second tender is for a manager for a passive UK and global equity mandate, valued at between £30-45m. This will not affect the overall allocation to equities of 60% as the mandate will be funded through a reduction of the scheme's active mandates held by Alliance Bernstein and Standard Life, which will see their holdings decline from 30% each to 25% and 20% respectively.

The closing date for both mandates is 21 December 2009 and further information can be obtained from Hymans Robertson.

Elsewhere East Sussex County Council is seeking a provider of a corporate governance overlay for the equity investments of its £1.38bn pension fund.

The service required is an "integrated responsible investment overlay", which should include voting and engagement with its portfolio companies, with a particular emphasis on environmental impact. This will cover the fund's UK and global equity investments, valued at approximately £1bn, which are primarily held in pooled funds.

Applications should be submitted by 10 December 2009 and further information can be obtained from Hymans Robertson.

Meanwhile Lincolnshire County Council is targeting an absolute return bond manager to run approximately £30-100m of its £938.5m pension fund.

The successful manager will be benchmarked against sterling 3-month LIBOR, with a performance objective of between 2-4% net above the 3-month LIBOR rate over a rolling three-five year period. The council confirmed it would consider both pooled and segregated solutions.

The closing date for the tender is 23 November 2009 and further information can be obtained from Hymans Robertson.

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