DENMARK - A Danish financial institution is looking for a manager to look after a $300m (€232m) hard currency debt mandate in global emerging markets, using IPE Quest.

In the search, QN993, the institutional investors stated an investment universe of global bonds denominated in US dollars, euros, pounds sterling, Swiss francs, Japanese yen, or in the local currencies of the countries that are benchmark constituents.

The preferred benchmark is the JP Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Global Diversified, hedged to Danish krone.

The vehicle should initially be two funds, both complying with UCITS-regulations.

The manager should submit the longest possible history of monthly GIPS composite data that provides the best possible fit with the following investment restrictions:

Not more than 15% of the portfolios may be invested in local currency denominated instruments of the countries that are benchmark constituents; Not more than 30% of the portfolios may be invested in EM corporates; The fund must not invest in leveraged loans; Not more than 15% of the portfolios may be invested in bonds rated below B3/B-; The interest rate durations of the portfolios are only allowed to deviate +/- 2 years from the benchmark duration; Currency exposures must be hedged to DKK or EUR except for local currency investments; Short selling of securities are not allowed; Derivatives may be used for risk management purposes; Bonds issued or guaranteed by the US government or member states of the European Union may periodically constitute a substantial part of the portfolios, and Equities, convertible bonds etc are not allowed.

The investor concluded: "We do not predefine a tracking error level for the portfolios but our quantitative performance evaluation will include absolute returns, absolute volatility, sharpe ratios, and performance relative to benchmark as well as tracking error volatility."

The closing date of the search is February 9.