The local authority pension funds for Edinburgh and Falkirk Council in Scotland have tendered a mandate for investment performance measurement and risk analysis services.

The joint procurement is being led by the City of Edinburgh council on behalf of the £5.4bn (€6.9bn) Lothian Pension Fund, with the contract open for use by the pension fund for neighbouring Falkirk council.

The contract, valued at £2m, is for five years.

In Sweden, the asset management arm of corporate bank SEB has appointed Hermes EOS to provide engagement and screening services.

The engagement arm of Hermes Investment Management will advise on SEB Investment Management’s €33.15bn of global holdings outside the Nordic region.

Hans Ek, head of ESG and corporate governance at SEB Investment Management, said: “By joining forces with Hermes EOS, we are strengthening our sustainability dialogues with companies outside Scandinavia.”

The asset manager estimates it will be able to double the number of dialogues with these companies, to 360, thereby “creating value both for the companies and our clients”, he added.

In Switzerland, first-pillar buffer fund Compenswiss has added a global real estate mandate to its three-pronged tender of regional value-added real estate mandates.

Last Thursday, 15 September, the CHF34bn (€31bn) buffer fund announced three requests for proposal, for value-add or opportunistic fund strategies in Europe, Asia and the US.

In response to requests from asset managers that do not have regional products to pitch, Compenswiss has since expanded the procurement process to include a global mandate, also value-added or opportunistic.

Submissions will be analysed in conjunction with the regional tenders, with a spokesman telling IPE “the goal remains the same” – namely, the creation of a global portfolio of indirect real estate assets.

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