The London Borough of Croydon is busy poring over replies from fund managers to its recent advertisement.

The local authority invited expressions of interest” from fund management companies in managing their overseas equities investments.

This may or may not result in a formal tender for the overseas equity mandate, the borough says. “This depends on our analysis of the results,” says Ivan White, Croydon’s treasury and investment manager. The portfolio is worth about £50m ($79m).

White says his department is looking out to see if there are any “whizz kids” out there who could produce results that are better than average.”