UK - The £1.5bn (€1.6bn) Norfolk Pension Fund is tendering for investment managers for several global equity mandates worth up to £400m each.

The scheme erroneously posted a tender notice last week stating that the mandates, which will run four years, would only be valued at £400,000.

However, a new notice by the fund clarifies that managers will be awarded mandates between £100m and £400m.

Norfolk is seeking to establish a framework agreement with several companies, using the MCSI All Countries World or FTSE All World indices as a benchmark.

It is targeting returns of 2%-4% each year over a three to five-year period and reserves the right to adjust the size of the mandate.

The council says that several individual mandates may be awarded as a result of the tenure notice.

According to the fund's 2008-09 annual report, Fidelity Pensions Management was its largest asset manager, caring for 20% of all assets, followed by Capital International and Aviva Investors, with 17% and 13%, respectively.

Interested parties should make all submissions by 17 September, while additional information can be obtained through fund actuary and investment advisor Hymans Robertson.

In other news, the Government Actuary's Department (GAD) has begun its quinquennial consultation into the calculation of contacted-out rebates.

The consultation, which will result in the organisation putting forward three proposals to the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP), concerns the exact means of calculating the rebates for defined benefit contracting, due to the abolition of defined contribution contracting-out.

The three proposals are calculating on a "best estimate" basis, a "typical funding" basis and a "gilts" basis, with the first proposal aiming to best emulate, through contracting-out payments, what would be received as part of the state second pension.

GAD said "typical funding" allows for margins for the investment, adding that it should take into account the Pensions Act 2004, as well as guidelines issued by the Pensions Regulator, while a "gilts" basis should provide its benefits by investing in government bonds.

GAD noted that the derived rebates for these proposals would be  4.7-4.9%, 6% and 10.1%, respectively, while all three will take the shift to the consumer price index into account.

The full consultation paper can be found here.

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