Border to Coast hires three managers for UK Alpha Equity Fund

The £46 billion Border to Coast Pensions Partnership has announced the appointment of three external asset managers – Baillie Gifford, Janus Henderson and UBS Asset Management – for a UK equity fund. Border to Coast said that the UK listed equity alpha fund could total £1.2 billion at launch.

The appointments followed an extensive manager selection exercise for the Border to Coast pool, with assistance from consultant Mercers. Over 30 asset managers were assessed on various criteria for a fund which aims to generate long-term returns of 2% a year above the FTSE All Share index, after fees. Janus Henderson will have a mandate to focus on smaller companies, while the other two managers are benchmarked against the FTSE All Share.

Border to Coast chief executive officer, Rachel Elwell, commented: “It is testament to the commitment of the asset management community to the LGPS that we received so many high-quality submissions. I am confident that with the combination of Baillie Gifford, Janus Henderson and UBS Asset Management we can begin to build up the long-term returns our partner funds need.”

Border to Coast is the LGPS pool for 12 local authority funds based across England with combined assets of approximately £46 billion. It is planning to launch an externally managed global equity fund in 2019, with an RFP for mandates issues in the last quarter of 2018.