Torfaen County Borough Council Pension Fund, Pontypool, Wales, is searching for at least one manager to run a total of £100 million ($162 million) in active global equities, the first such investment for the £1.1 billion fund, a spokesman said.
The fund seeks minimum returns of two to four percentage points above the MSCI World index, net of fees. Hedge fund strategies will not be considered.
Funding will come from terminating SSgA, which ran a similar-size active U.K. equities portfolio. Fund officials created the global portfolio to move more equities overseas, and SSgA had the weakest performance among its U.K. equity managers, said the spokesman, who asked not to be identified. A call to an SSgA spokesman seeking comment was not returned by press time.
As a result of the move, U.K. equities will fall to 37% of total assets from 46%. LazardAsset Management, BGI and Standard Life continue to run active U.K. equity mandates of about £200 million, £150 million and £50 million, respectively.
Responses are due Aug. 17. Further information can be obtained from bfinance, which is assisting in the search, by sending an e-mail to [email protected]