Imperial Tobacco Pension Fund, Bristol, England, will replace its in-house team with external managers, following a review by William M. Mercer.
Up to six managers will be hired over the next several months to manage 83% of the £2.3 billion ($3.76 billion) fund. Up to three will be picked for U.K. equity mandates, comprising 42% of assets; one or two for U.K. bonds, 24%; one for property, 10%; and one for cash, 7%. The fund’s 17% allocation to overseas equities is managed by five external managers in regional and country mandates.
Of Imperial Investments’ five investment professionals, Joint Managing Director William Mather will be retained to oversee external managers. It probably will be hard to redeploy other portfolio managers within the company, Mr. Huckman said.
