Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, a UK public sector pension pool, is seeking to appoint a specialist China equity manager to supplement its existing Emerging Market Equity Fund.
The fund, which is currently wholly managed internally, is expected to allocate around a third of its assets to the specialist China manager – a total external mandate size of around GBP200-300 million.
Following consultation with its partner funds, Border to Coast is seeking to create two separate sleeves within its Emerging Market Equity Fund – one for China (to be benchmarked to FTSE Total China Index) while the internally managed sleeve will use FTSE Emerging Markets (excluding China) as its benchmark.
Daniel Booth, chief investment officer at Border to Coast, says: “With the increasing weight of China in the emerging markets benchmark, reflecting trends in the wider market, we felt it was appropriate to seek a specialist partner who will provide us with a local market presence.”
The Emerging Market Equity Fund was launched in October 2018 with GBP600 million.
Following a period of restructuring post the launch of the fund, it has outperformed its benchmark by 0.5 per cent in the 15 months to 31 March 2020.
Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, Border to Coast has produced an online presentation for managers interested in bidding for the specialist China mandate, which provides the background and selection process.
The formal tender process for up to two managers will be launched on Monday 4 May and managers are likely to be appointed in Q3 2020. The Border to Coast process is being supported by Mercer; any queries from managers should be directed to bordertocoast@mercer.com.
