Despite the faltering stockmarket recovery, pressure to plug funding shortfalls and the introduction of new accounting regulations, public pension schemes in Europe awarded over twice as many equity mandates as fixed income mandates during the 12 months to the end of January.
Topping FT Mandate’s ranking table is the French-based Fonds de Reserve pour les Retraites (FRR) which grabbed the headlines last year when it farmed out its entire ?16.7bn of assets in a total of 27 equity and fixed income briefs to 17 domestic and Anglo-Saxon investment managers.
Barclays Global Investors, Credit Lyonnais Asset Management and Vanguard Investments were each handed ?1bn large-cap eurozone passive equities mandates. US-based Vanguard also won a ?640m large cap US passive equity brief. Axa Investment Managers, Credit Lyonnais and Société Générale Asset Management were each awarded ?200m small and mid-cap eurozone active mandates.
A ?460m US large-cap value equity mandate went to troubled Deutsche Asset Management, while AGF Asset Management picked up a ?460m US large cap growth equity mandate. Axa Investment Managers, Capital International, Groupama Asset Management and Lombard Odier Darier Hentch were each awarded ?620m large-cap eurozone equity mandates.
Pan-European (ex-eurozone) mandates worth ?240m each were awarded to Axa Investment Managers and Schroders. Both Capital International and Morgan Stanley investment Management both won Pacific equity briefs worth ?240m each.
Fixed income
On the fixed income side, AGF Asset Management, Axa Investment Managers, BNP Paribas Asset Management, CDC Ixis Asset Management, Crédit Agricole Asset Management, HSBC and Robeco Asset Management were each granted international corporate bond briefs worth ?960m each.
A ?480m international inflation-linked indexed bond brief was granted to F&C Asset Management, while ?480m international (non-euro denominated) bond mandates went to CDC Ixis Asset Management and Deutsche Asset Management.
The £19bn (?13.4bn) Universities Superannuation Scheme, the UK’s third largest pension fund, also showed a stock market bias when it awarded £3.8bn in specialist mandates last March.
In a move away from balanced management driven by a search for outperformance, Wellington Management was picked to run a £1.9bn global equity brief, while Goldman Sachs Asset Management picked up a £950m UK equity mandate and Legal & General Investment Management collected £960m in active bonds. All were asked to target a 2 per cent return in excess of their indices. They joined existing specialist managers Capital International for global equities and Henderson Global Investors for an enhanced UK indexed equities brief. Baillie Gifford, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and Schroders were axed to make way for the new managers.
PGGM, the ?57bn Dutch healthcare and social workers pension fund, pursues a bold investment strategy by Continental European standards. The scheme has an equity weighting of over 45 per cent, with 21 per cent of this allocation invested in emerging and Far East equities.
Its 30 per cent fixed income portfolio is similarly aggressive, with three-quarters allocated to high yield and emerging market debt.
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