Taiwan's Public Service Pension Fund hired BlackRock and UBS Global Asset Management to manage US$250 million each in global minimum-volatility indexed equity, and BlackRock and Allianz Global Investors to manage US$250 million each in global high-dividend-yield enhanced equity, a spokeswoman for the NT$563.14 billion (US$18.5 billion) Taipei-based defined benefit plan said by e-mail.
A statement on the PSPF's website said the global minimum-volatility strategies will be benchmarked against the MSCI World index, excluding Taiwan, while the high-dividend allocations will be benchmarked against the MSCI World High Dividend Yield index, excluding Taiwan.
According to the spokeswoman, the latest round of allocations for managers of overseas assets is the PSPF's ninth in just more than a decade. The combined total for the first eight rounds of overseas discretionary mandates came to US$4.01 billion as of the end of 2013.
The PSPF statement cited risk diversification as one objective of the latest round of allocations.
