UK - The £1.72bn (€2.54bn) Norfolk County Council Pension Fund is looking to appoint one or more managers for its £100m specialist active currency portfolio.

The new mandate, "approximately £70m to £100m with one or more managers, segregate or pooled structure", has been developed following an asset liability study completed in 2005.

"The currency mandate is the last piece of that jig saw," a spokesman for the fund told IPE today.

The authority in the East of England seeks returns of 1% at the total £700m fund level for overseas equities.

"We are open to suggestions, but our view is the likely appointment is going to be two or more managers," the spokesman added.

Aspirant managers can apply until March 1 next year, the fund stated in the official contract notice published today.

Norfolk is aided by consultancy firm bfinance in the tender process.

Elsewhere, the €69.7m Yorkshire Co-operatives Ltd Employees' Superannuation Fund said it has allocated 10% of its defined benefit pension scheme to BlackRock's Liability Plus, a pooled liability driven investment (LDI) solution.

Derek Rushton, pensions manager at United Co-operatives which operated the fund, commented the BlackRock fund suits his scheme as it provides access to the latest LDI techniques.

Next to BlackRock, Baring Asset Management manages the diversified growth assets of the fund.