UK - The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is seeking a new global equities manager to run a portfolio expected to reach £100m (€126m) in the first year of the contract.
In a tender notice, the organisation - which provides compensation for members of pension schemes that wind-up - revealed it is seeking an active global equities manager to run a portfolio that will be "fully hedged to sterling".
The benchmark for the fund will be the FTSE World Index Hedged to sterling, and the new contract will run alongside the existing portfolio of global equities managed by Newton Investment Management.
A spokesman for the PPF said the fund is looking to appoint "up to five managers on a call-out basis" to avoid the need to continue re-tendering the contract, although one manager will be appointed to begin with, to run a portfolio expected to be valued at around £100m within the first year.
Figures from the PPF's latest annual report for 2006/07 showed at the end of March 2007 the organisation had already invested £322m of assets, and had just transferred a further £395m to be invested in accordance with its statement of investment principles.
The PPF's current asset allocation strategy, according to the report, is 20% in cash and 50% in global bonds, with the remaining split 12.5% to UK equities, 7.5% to global equities, 7.5% in property and 2.5% in a currency overlay strategy.
The last manager appointments by the PPF were made in March 2007, when it appointed Newton to run an active global equities portfolio, State Street Global Advisers and Lazard to manage UK equities, while Morley was placed in control of the property portfolio and Auriel Capital Management took control of the currency overlay.
The closing date for applications for the global equity manager position is September 9, 2008.
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