UK- Royal Liver Assurance has appointed Barclays Global Investors to manage a new £137m (e218m) active UK equity mandate. BGI was selected following a beauty parade in conjunction with Royal Liver’s external advisers, whereby three asset managers were shortlisted.

Says Ian Longley, treasury manager at Royal Liver: “In current market conditions it is very important to choose an active manager that can deliver a good active performance. In awarding this mandate we appreciated BGI’s strong long-term active performance track record, derived from an investment process that focuses on performance at minimal risk.”

BGI is normally associated with passive management, as 75% of its assets are in this area, but its active business has been highly successful this year.

“Although only 25% of our funds under management are managed actively, but the total is still £85bn, putting us among the top ten active managers,” says a spokesman.

BGI's flagship active fund, the Ascent Life UK fund, has outperformed its benchmark by 2.4 percentage points over one year, 2.1 over three years and 2.0 over five.

The Royal Liver mandate was previously invested in equities but managed in-house. The new mandate is benchmarked to the FTSE 350 and aims to outperform the index by 1% a year. Royal Liver has £3bn under management.

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