EUROPE - The Danish Teachers Pension Fund (Laerernes) and the Dutch Metalworkers Pension Fund (PME) have awarded passive mandates to Russell Indexes.

Laerernes has invested €120m in a mandate tracking the Russell Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Company index.

PME has invested an undisclosed amount in segregated mandates tracking the Russell Defensive US and Developed Europe indices.

Morten Roed Eriksen, portfolio manager at Laerernes, said the pension fund wanted to gain exposure to a fundamentally weighted investment strategy through an “efficient, transparent and rules-based index approach”. 

PME also cited the indices’ ability to gain exposure to more stable US and European companies in a “focused and objective way”.

Nick Spencer, director of institutional consulting at Russell Investments in Europe, said his company had seen increasing demand from European institutional investors for fundamental and low-volatility investment strategies.

In other news, Danske Capital has tendered a $75m (€58m) US mid-cap equities mandate using IPE-Quest.

Asset managers interested in search QN1257 should state performance to the end of August.

The closing date for applications is 16 October.

The IPE.com news team is unable to answer any further questions about IPE-Quest tender notices to protect the interests of clients conducting the search. To obtain information directly from IPE-Quest, please contact Jayna Vishram on +44 (0) 20 3465 9330 or email jayna.vishram@ipe-quest.com.