EUROPE – A European pension fund is searching for investment management services for tactical equity asset allocation mandates via IPE-QUEST (QN643).

The scheme is looking to allocate up to $1bn (€787m) to tactical equity allocation mandates. The amount will be split between two to three investment managers with expected funding in the first quarter of 2007.

The managers’ performance objective will be to generate a gross excess return of at least 0.75% annually with a reasonable tracking error. The strategy shall be implemented using derivatives in order to keep the pension fund’s capital requirements low.

The pension fund has a preference for investment managers who can offer the tactical equity allocation strategy in a limited liability structure but lack of this should not prevent managers from replying.

The pension fund is open to proposals from managers having only in the past managed global tactical asset allocation (GTAA) strategies but who can offer the equity country selection in a separate mandate and who can demonstrate that this part of the global tactical asset allocation strategy historically has added alpha on a consistent basis with a satisfactory information ratio.

The benchmark is cash.

The closing date is July 27.