Standard Life Investments, the fund management unit of the UK-based insurer, has signed its largest local authority pension fund mandate yet after securing a GBP200 million specialist UK equity portfolio with Staffordshire County Council.
Standard Life Investments (SLI) won the mandate after a tough tendering process involving a number of investment houses and will now run approximately GBP2 billion in total for local authorities through a number of different mandates.
Other companies, including Goldman Sachs, Standard Life Investments, AXA Rosenberg, Alliance Bernstein and State Street Global Advisors, also benefited from the tender.
Since January 2005 SLI’s total funds have risen to GBP105.7 billion as a result of an increase in third party assets. Its assets under management have consequently breached the GBP100 billion mark for H1 2005.
To date, this is the largest local authority mandate we have won and reflects the growing confidence investors have in the robust investment process Standard Life Investments has in place to deliver strong out-performance across a variety of asset classes, George Walker, head of UK institutional business at SLI, told The Herald newspaper in Scotland.
Jonathan Cobb, investment director of UK equities at Standard Life Investments, will be responsible for managing the new equity portfolio.