UK - Cambridgeshire County Council's pension fund has dropped Schroders and UBS for underperformance and is now seeking new equity managers to look after half of its assets.

Details of a tender notice just issued reveal the £1.4bn (€1.88bn) local government fund is restructuring £700m in equity holdings and is looking for three asset managers to look after global equity, UK equity index and European equity mandates.

John Hopwood, chief investment officer at Cambridgeshire County Council, told IPE the fund is restructuring and re-tendering UBS' existing £600m mandate and the £100m mandate held by Schroders as a £350m global equity fund, a £150m UK equity index fund and a £200m European equity fund, following poor performance from both companies.

"We are not shifting our strategy and the overall asset allocation will be broadly the same but we are making changes because of underperformance by both UBS and Schroders," said Hopwood.

The new investment contracts will begin from May 1, 2008 so interested parties must submit a pre-qualification via Hymans Robertson and tenders must then be received by February 29.

Cambridgeshire County Council contributes to two defined benefit pension schemes, according to the local authority's 2005/06 statement of accounts: the Local Government Scheme and the Teachers' Pension Scheme.

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Julie Henderson on + 44 (0)20 7261 4602 or email julie.henderson@ipe.com

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