UK – The UK arm of US-based silicon technology firm Dow Corning has gone for a multi-manager strategy for part of its defined benefit plan and appointed SEI Investments to manage a 32 million pound (46 million euro) global equity mandate.

John Cook, pensions manager at Dow Corning in Barry, Wales, said: “We decided to adopt the manager-of-managers approach for the management of our UK pension plan because we were impressed by the concept of outsourcing the selection and monitoring of fund managers.”

He added that the trustees were confident that SEI’s process and the depth of its research would be of benefit to the fund.

SEI’s head of institutional client service, Nigel Down, said the group was very pleased to have been appointed by Dow Corning. By taking responsibility for manager selection, he believed, SEI’s process would provide the trustees with a more effective decision-making process.

“We look forward to working closely with Dow Corning in achieving the objectives for their fund.”

Commenting more generally, Down said: “Our success in winning mandates this year is further evidence of the increasing popularity of manager-of managers as a more efficient way of managing pensions funds.”

As at March 31, Pennsylvania-based SEI administered 230 billion dollars (199 billion euros) in mutual funds and pooled funds and manager 78 billion dollars in assets worldwide. Currently it operates in 10 countries.