A Swiss institutional investor has tendered a CHF80m (€76m) small to mid-cap equities strategy, using IPE-Quest.

According to search QN1481, the investor asks that the manager focus on the Swiss equity market, and has set an active management investment style requirement.

Managers should benchmark against the SPI Small and Middle Companies and select exclusively from this universe, excluding real estate.

Stocks must have been listed for at least 12 months.

Interested managers would be expected to outperform the set benchmark by an average of 300 basis points per year, over a four-year cycle, net of fees.

Submissions should be made by 12 February, with a decision expected by March 2015.

In other news, the European Parliament has awarded a contract to Ernst and Young to conduct an actuarial study on a range of its pension schemes.

The schemes, which include the retirement benefits for French and Italian MEPs, and the Supplementary Pension Scheme, will now be actuarially assessed by Ernst and Young’s France office.

The consulting firm won the tenders for all the separate schemes, beating seven other proposals.

A contract for an actuarial study for the Invalidity and Survivors’ Pension Scheme was secured by Deloitte, in Germany, which also beat seven other proposals.

The contracts were awarded in January and are expected to last for four years.