GERMANY – The 29 billion-euro BVK, or Bayerische Versorgungskammer, has awarded Mellon Global Investments a 100 million-euro US mid-cap equities mandate.

The mandate, effective from December, would be managed by Mellon’s Franklin Portfolio Associates, a US equities specialist which manages 13.7 billion euros worldwide.

Daniel Just, managing director of the fund’s capital investment department, said Franklin offered a “US specialist with a successful and transparent investment process and track record”.

Describing BVK as a “reference customer”, Volker Grueneke, Mellon’s managing director in Germany and Northern European sales chief, said the mandate confirms the company’s strategy of bringing specialist asset management under “the Mellon roof”.

The BVK is Germany’s largest pension fund for 12 different occupational groups with 1.15 million contributing members. The Mellon move was part of a wider revamp of the fund.

Last year it conducted a review of its approach to running its assets and its external manager relationships, using the services of consultants Alpha Portfolio Advisers. Initially five master funds have been established across a range of equity classes involving 17 managers.

In October it appointed State Street Global Advisors to run just under one billion dollars (860 million euros).

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