A pension fund based in Switzerland is looking to appoint two asset managers for a mandate in corporate investment grade bonds worth up to CHF1.5bn.

According to search QN-2831 on IPE Quest, the purpose of tender is to cover the entire universe of potential asset managers and to find suitable candidates for the request for proposal stage.

“Our intention is to build two portfolios – with two different managers – with slightly different but complementary investment styles and a total exposure of approximately CHF1-1.5bn,” the fund said in the notice.

“We envision that one mandate will be a semi-active portfolio with a conservative risk-return profile and only a few risk-mitigating and return-enhancing off-benchmark components,” it added.

The second mandate will be a more active portfolio with additional flexibility for return-enhancing components such as high yield, emerging market corporates, derivatives, the fund said in the document.

The fund is encouraging participating asset managers to submit applications for both portfolios; the deadline has been set for 23 June 5pm UK time.

For the first model portfolio, the pension scheme is planning to follow the BBG Barclays Global Agg Corporate Total Return Indexand it plans to achieve exposure to a diversified, long-only portfolio with the aim of outperforming the net benchmark return by 0.25%-0.50% p.a. (after deduction of any costs), primarily driven by security selection and sector allocation.

For the second movel portfolio, the fund is planning to follow the BBG Barclays Global Agg Corporate Total Return Index and the Bloomberg Global Corporate BB-B Index.

It also plans to achieve exposure to a diversified, long-only portfolio with the aim of outperforming the net benchmark return by 0.75%-1.50% p.a. (after deduction of any costs), driven by multiple sources of alpha.

Swedish Fund Selection Agency hands mandate to Style Analytics

The Swedish Fund Selection Agency (Fondtorgsnämnden, FTN) announced that the Swedish Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten) has signed a strategic agreement with portfolio analysis provider Style Analytics on FTN’s behalf.

FTN, which is about to launch the first tender for the Premium Pension system’s new procured funds platform it was designed to create, said the Style Analytics system would be one of several tools used during its upcoming procurements.

“The tools provided by Style Analytics to the Swedish Fund Selection Agency will not only be important during the procurements, but will also be used for the continuous monitoring of the funds on the platform,” said the body, which has recently moved to its new offices in Botkyrka near Stockholm.

The system would be used, inter alia, to analyse the portfolio exposure, both regarding factor exposure, risk, liquidity and sustainability, FTN said.

The agency said the decision to award the mandate was made in December 2022, and the implementation of the Style Analytics tools had been initiated, with the system expected to be place for the first procurement.

The IPE news team is unable to answer any further questions about IPE Quest, Discovery, or Innovation 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. Follow IPE Quest on LinkedIn.