European Mandates
October 2009
State Street Corporation has been chosen to provide fund administration services for Intermountain Equity Group’s (IEG) private equity fund. The newly launched fund, a $400million private equity real estate fund, will be provided with a full range of administration services, including custody, accounting, financial reporting and tax services, by State Street.
RBC Dexia Investor Services has been chosen by Swedish-based Keel Capital AB as custodian, domiciliary agent, administrative agent, registrar and transfer agent for its new SIF SICAV Hedge Fund. Keel Capital AB offers a long/short Alpha focused equity hedge fund that seeks Alpha generation in both long and short positions.
Hewitt Associates has been appointed to provide scheme actuary and investment consultancy services to the AA Pension Scheme. The AA, the UK’s leading breakdown organisation, chose Hewitt following a review by the scheme’s trustees, and will see David Eteen of Hewitt act as scheme actuary, and John Belgrove as investment consultant. A full range of actuarial and investment services, including funding guidance, risk management advice, strategic investment advice and monitoring of fund managers, will be provided by Hewitt.
BNY Mellon has been selected to provide derivatives collateral management services to the Invensys Pension Scheme (IPS), which it will deliver via its DM Edge platform. The two companies have also joined forces to develop a single collateral management platform through which all of IPS’s aggregate collateral requirements across asset managers and bank counterparts will be managed by BNY Mellon.
The Merseyside Pension Fund has announced that it has chosen to continue to work with its existing managers, Schroders and Legal & General, to manage mandates to run active unconstrained UK fixed income portfolios, worth a combined £372million, or nine per cent of the £4.1bn Fund. The Fund made the decision following a review and tender process conducted with the help of Hymans Robertson.
Northern Trust has been selected to
provide fund administration services to three niche real estate funds
managed by boutique investment manager Apache Capital Partners
LLP. Apache Capital Partners focuses on the management of property-related
investments, and was established in March 2008 to optimise on prevailing
market dynamics. Northern Trust will provide services to the Apache Roxylight
UK Infrastructure Opportunity Fund, the Apache UK Active Commercial Opportunity
Fund, and the Apache Prime Central London Residential Opportunity Fund.
Mercer has been appointed by the Co-operative
Pension Scheme to provide implemented consulting services for
the alternatives investments in its £5bn pension funds, which will
be phased in over two years to represent 13 per cent of the total fund.
The UK branch of German industrial insurer, HDI-Gerling,
has appointed Friends Provident to supply a new group
stakeholder pension scheme for UK employees. The scheme replaces the existing
GPP scheme provided by Aviva, and follows the closure of the company’s
final salary scheme. HDI-Gerling’s UK employees will have immediate
access to a single pension solution which is tailored directly to their
individual needs.
Google has appointed Mercer as advisor
for its employee benefits in the UK, including to its contract-based pension
schemes and associated risk and medical arrangements.
The Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund has opted to
secure around £500million of pension liabilities with Lucida.
Over half of the total pensioner benefits of the Old Section will be insured
by Lucida, a part of the fund which closed in 1978 and covers almost 22,000
retired members.
BlackRock has been appointed as fiduciary manager by
PA Pension Trustees Ltd, the UK pension scheme for PA
Consulting Group, a leading management and IT consulting and technology
firm, for its £410million UK pension scheme. BlackRock, which has
worked with PA Pension Trustees to develop an investment strategy to meet
their requirements, were chosen for their comprehensive, holistic nature
and sensitivity towards prevailing market conditions, said Norman Schofield,
chairman of PA Pensions Trustees.
