Britannic Asset Management (BAM) has picked up two new bond briefs for £30m (E51m) each from Howden Group and Britannia Building Society.
BAM believes that the introduction of the UK minimum funding requirement (MFR) and the demand for assets to be closely matched with liabilities each year has forced many UK pension schemes to take a more conservative approach to asset allocation than in the past. The end result, BAM says, has been a dramatic increase in the demand for bonds, particularly credits. BAM currently manages around £5bn in corporate bonds, index-linked bonds and gilts.