UK - Somerset County Council is seeking an investment manager to take on a £30m (€39m) global emerging market mandate.

The fund, valued at just over £1bn (€1.3bn), requires an active, long-only, global emerging market equity manager to run approximately £30m of assets through a pooled fund or number of pooled funds.

The search for an emerging market manager follows the fund's tender for fixed interest manager in February, after the Pension Committee decided to terminate F&C's mandate following poor performance. (See earlier IPE story: Somerset drops F&C as fixed interest manager)

However, documents from the Committee's last two meetings revealed Somerset was intending to issue the mandate for the emerging markets manager, alongside a tender for a private equity manager in December, but the decision to replace F&C meant the changes were postponed to give priority to finding a new fixed interest manager.

As a result, the latest reports from the Committee revealed Standard Life is currently acting as a temporary manager of the fixed interest part of the fund's portfolio, valued at around £200m, while the final selection for a full-time replacement is not expected until August or September.

It therefore suggested the selection dates for the emerging markets mandate, and the forthcoming private equity tender, will be delayed until December 2008.

Part of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), the Somerset Pension Fund has around 38,000 members from Somerset County Council and more than 50 other employers.

The emerging markets tender will close to applications on May 1, and invitations are expected to be issued to up to five managers in June, with the mandate awarded to the most economically-advantageous proposal.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Nyree Stewart on + 44 (0)20 7261 4618 or email nyree.stewart@ipe.com