EUROPE - The East Sussex County Council is looking to appoint one or more pension fund managers to establish a framework agreement comprising a number of unconstrained, long-only active global equity managers.

The council said the investment objective would provisionally be "substantial" outperformance - +2.5-4% over rolling three-year periods - of the MSCI AC World index.

A wide range of investment styles will be considered, and the size of the mandate is expected to range between £75m (€95m) and £125m.

Single or multiple mandates may be awarded concurrently or consecutively within the framework period of four years.

Candidates should complete a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ), available from Hymans Robertson, and send their request to participate before 17 September.

In other news, the London Borough of Camden Pension Fund has awarded a multi-strategy hedge fund of funds mandate to BlueCrest Capital Management.

The asset management firm, which will manage a £40-50m portfolio, will have to design a multi-strategy consisting of at least four different hedge fund strategies invested through a fund-of-fund approach.

The performance objective will be based on cash (LIBOR) plus returns, which are relatively uncorrelated with equities and at lower than equity market levels of volatility, the pension fund added.

BlueCrest beat out five other asset managers for the mandate.

Meanwhile, Europol, the European law enforcement agency, is seeking to appoint an audit company to provide annual audits for its pension fund.

In its request, Europol said the €125,000 tender would cover annual audits for up to four years.

The selected company will be required to maintain the tender for a minimum duration of six months.

Audit companies will have until 25 September to apply, and requests to participate can be submitted in any official EU language.

The selected company will be announced at the opening of tenders, which will take place on 27 September.

Lastly, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is looking for a consultant to provide legal advice for its pension schemes.

Under the agreement, the consultancy selected will contribute to the strategic pensions planning and policy development of the NDA.

The NDA added that the consultancy would be required to have a particular expertise in change management, including the pension aspects of corporate restructuring and company sales.

Additionally, the NDA said it would prefer a consultancy with a "strong" pensions team specialising in pensions law and with nuclear sector pensions expertise, with a minimum of three senior pensions partners or equivalent.

The contract will be awarded for 48 months in total. Consultants should apply by 1 October.

Topics