IRELAND – The Irish National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission, the body appointed to oversee the management of the e7bn National Pensions Reserve Fund has revealed full details of the huge RFP for around a dozen investment mandates equalling e6bn in assets, as revealed by IPE-Newsline last Friday.

The Commission firstly announced that the country’s National Treasury Management Agency, the fund’s operations manager, will be responsible for investing a passive bond portfolio, which accounts for 14.8% of the total or around e1bn in the reserve’s assets.

The Agency itself is also seeking to appoint a transition manager for the e7bn transfer from cash to one active bond mandate and nine equity briefs.
A minimum of five providers will be invited to tender from the initial longlist.
Detail for receipt of tenders is August 16, 2001.

The full list of mandates for the reserve fund as set out in the OJEC journal is as follows:

* 3 pan-European equity active core portfolios valued at about e300m each – benchmarked to the FTSE All-World Developed Europe index.

* 1 US equity enhanced index portfolio valued at about e350m – benchmarked to the FTSE AWI North America index

* 1 US equity active growth portfolio valued at about e300m – benchmarked to the FTSE AWI North America index

* 1 US equity active value active portfolio valued at about e300m - benchmarked to the FTSE AWI North America index

* 1 (or possibly 2) Japanese equity active portfolios valued in total at about e300m – benchmarked against the FTSE AWI Japan

* 1 Pacific basin ex Japan equity active portfolio valued at about e90m – benchmarked against the FTSE All World Developed Asia Pacific ex Japan

* 1 (or possibly more) Eurozone equity passive portfolio(s) valued in total at about e2bn – benchmarked against the FTSE AWI Eurobloc

* 1 (or possibly 2) US equity passive portfolios valued in total at about e625m – benchmarked against the FTSE AWI North America

* 1 Eurozone long bond active portfolio valued at about e350m – benchmarked against the Merrill Lynch EMU Direct Government Bond Index 10+ years ex Ireland)

* 2 global equity active portfolios valued at e350m each – benchmarked to 50% against the FTSE AWI eurobloc and 50% to the FTSE All-World developed ex Eurobloc.

As a result, the initial asset allocation for the fund is 40% in eurozone equity, 40% in rest-of-the-world equity – hedged to a 50% level, and 20% in Eurozone long fixed income.

Again, a minimum of five investment managers will be invited to tender for each brief following the creation of longlists.
Significantly, initial submissions of interest for the mandates can be made to the NTMA using a web-based platform run in conjunction with the London based IPE-Quest system (http://NTMA.ipe-quest.com).

The second stage will involve invited managers being asked to make a formal submission of proposal.
Deadline for receipt of requests is August 13 with the NTMA saying the final date for the dispatch of invitations to tender will be September 14.

There is currently e7bn in assets in the fund with an extra e486m to be paid in between now and the year end reflecting the balance of the 1% GNP related contribution by the government for 2001.

Any questions should be directed to Deborah Reidy,
Head of investment manager selection,
National Treasury Management Agency
Tel 00 353 1 6640866
e-mail: dreidy@ntma.ie