GLOBAL - Northern Trust has been awarded a $3.5bn (€2.5bn) mandate to provide custodial services for Stenham Asset Management.

Additionally, the company will provide the fund of hedge fund manager with fund administration, credit and foreign exchange services.

Stenham's group managing director Jeremy Alun-Jones said the appointment, which covers the company's entire fund portfolio, went to Northern Trust due to its experience within the fund of hedge fund industry.

"We expect to make considerable productivity gains over many years through this association with Northern Trust," he added.

Toby Glaysher, head of global fund services for Ireland, Luxembourg and the UK at Northern Trust, said: "Increasingly, we are seeing fund managers looking to Northern Trust for solutions to support requirements from their investors to respond to demands for better transparency, greater control and more robust governance frameworks for their alternative investments."

Meanwhile, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water (DCWW) is tendering for actuarial services, as well as an administration provider, for its pension scheme.

The contract - which initially runs for three years, with two potential 12-month extensions - is estimated by the company to be worth £1.5m (€1.7m).

DCWW currently runs two schemes, with its defined benefit fund no longer open to new entrants and with a deficit of £8m as at the end of March last year.

However, as part of a transfer of staff from outsourcing contracts, the company last year transferred close to 1,600 staff into the final salary scheme.

The transfer of these fully funded obligations saw £177m of assets and liabilities moved into the scheme.

Applicants are asked to contact DCWW for further details and should do so by the end of March, with a pre-qualification questionnaire sent to all interested parties.