UK/NETHERLANDS – Dresdner RCM has been appointed to run US large-cap equity mandates for both PGGM and the UK’s Merseyside pension fund.

The Dutch 45 billion-euro industry-wide pension scheme for healthcare and social work sector workers, PGGM, has appointed Dresdner RCM to manage a 120 million-dollar (105 million-euro) US equity large cap mandate.

Meanwhile, the UK local authority of Merseyside has appointed the asset manager to run a 200 million-dollar (174 million-euro) US equity large-cap mandate for its three billion-pound (4.3 billion-euro) pension scheme.

The mandate for PGGM will be run with a socially responsible strategy. Dresdner RCM’s SRI approach is based on its association with the United Nations Trust, which screens, monitors and engages with portfolio companies to promote SRI and sustainability principles worldwide.

A spokeswoman for PGGM said that SRI was important to the scheme as it felt that, in the long term, the strategy will produce higher profits that a traditional portfolio.

PGGM has had a European SRI portfolio since 2000. It also has an engagement portfolio with ISIS Asset Management. Added the spokeswoman: “We have been finding out which methods suits us best, and have been experimenting with engagement and best of class strategies in Europe, and now we want to see what happens in the US.”

With regards to combining the product with SRI research, Mark Archer, deputy chief executive officer at Allianz Dresdner Asset Management says he sees this as an increasing trend in Europe. The US equity product is one of Dresdner RCM’s flagship principles. Worldwide, the company manages over 21.4 billion dollars in US equity mandates.