UK - Lincolnshire County Council's £1.1bn (€1.3bn) pension fund is tendering a five-year contract for the position of global custodian.

The position, currently held by JP Morgan Securities Services, will become available next year when the current contract expires.

The Council asks that the custodian look after issues ranging from proxy voting and managing claims that arise from class action lawsuits through to processing entitlements and compiling financial reports.

Lincolnshire Pension Fund recently invested £74m in an absolute return fund managed by Goodhart Partners and earlier this year undertook a reorganisation of its equity portfolio aided by current custodian JP Morgan.

Interested parties should contact JLT Actuaries and Consultants about the tender before 18 October.

In other news, the £4.2bn Merseyside Pension Fund (MPF) is tendering the position of property asset manager for its UK-based direct real estate investments.

Wirral Council, which administers the fund, says in the tender notice it expects any manager to enhance the revenue stream coming from the portfolio and that it should work closely with other fund advisors.

Additionally, any manager must compile and submit all relevant data to IPD so analysis can be carried out on the fund's portfolio by the real estate investment body.

The contract, which runs for five years starting next February, carries the option for being renewed for a further year, while the council puts more emphasis on the quality of work, rather than the price at which the management is pitched.

Further information, as well as a pre-qualification questionnaire, can be downloaded from The Chest, the region's tender website.

All submissions should be made by 30 September.

MPF earlier this year announced it would publish an annual Responsible Investment Review, which would reveal its voting record, as well as its external managers' approach to responsible investing.