UK -- The £1bn (€1.44bn) Rhondda Cynon Taf Pension Fund has awarded a £340m UK and global equity mandate to Baillie Gifford & Co. The mandate was formerly managed by Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM).

A Rhondda Cynon Taf spokeswoman said that the new appointment was the only change in the asset management team.

According to International Pension Funds and Their Advisors 2004, the fund also employs F&C Management Ltd and ISIS Asset Management.

Rhondda CynonTaf Council acting chief executive Keith Griffiths said in a statement: “The tender followed a review of the structure of the Pension Fund. The appointment of Baillie Gifford followed the formal tender process during the last quarter of 2004.”

A spokeswoman for DeAM confirmed that the brief had been withdrawn last summer.

Earlier this month the BBC’s £6bn pension scheme declined comment on a report that it had dismissed DeAM from a £500m specialist UK equity mandate at the end of 2004 due to poor performance.

At the end of last year Deutsche Bank announced that DeAM’s headquarters would be moved from London to Frankfurt amid a revamp that saw Paul Manduca replaced as DeAM’s European chief executive by Axel Benkner. In addition, the UK business has seen a number of top executives leave.

In the third quarter of 2004, DeAM’s institutional business accounted for a large share of the €13bn in assets lost by the group’s asset management arm.

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