Brunel Pension Partnership, the manager of a set of pooled assets for ten local authorities in the UK, has selected Robeco and Quoniam Asset Management to each run £200 million (€234 million) in a low volatility global equities portfolio.
Brunel – which manages about £30 billion for ten local authority pension funds – had environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria high up on its priority list when selecting the managers.
Mark Mansley, chief investment officer at Brunel, said: “For this search, two particular areas we were interested in were understanding how managers address risk of valuation bubbles in low volatility strategies, and their use of ESG considerations to help further reduce risk.”
The £400 million mandate is expected to increase to £600 million and the objective is to outperform global equity markets over the long term but with lower short-term volatility.
Redington Investment Consultancy advised Brunel, whose members include Avon, Cornwall, Devon, the Environment Agency, and Wiltshire.
©2019 funds europe
