EUROPE – A European pension fund is tendering two equity portfolios totalling some $250m (€193m) through IPE-Quest.

The fund is seeking a manager for an approximately $150m large cap core mandate, benchmarked against the MSCI Europe index. Applications must be received by 28 January,.

It prefers a quantitative investment process and the right candidate is also required to have at least $750m in assets under management in quantitative strategies.

Other requirements include a history of “consistent excess performance”, information ratio above 0.5 and up/down capture success.

The fund also specified that ex-post tracking error must be within 2% and 6%

The second mandate, worth about $100m, is to run an MSCI AC Pacific ex-Japan equity portfolio. The right candidate must have a history of excess performance, up/down capture success and a minimum of $400m in the area.

The pension fund will consider any style except small cap but style consistency must be documented as well as reasons why the particular style should do well in the region.

Local presence of at least some analysts or portfolio managers is required.

The closing has been set for 28 January.