Lincolnshire County Council has appointed Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners to manage its pension fund.
The appointment follows an extensive investment manager search conducted with JLT Investment Consulting (JLT).
The council was looking to appoint a manager which would invest 15% of its £1.2bn pension fund across the diverse options of alternative investments, which include all the different assets classes beyond the mainstream investment categories of conventional equities, bonds and property.
Jo Ray, financial advisor, pensions and investments at the Lincolnshire County Council Pension Fund, said: “Early in the process, we identified part of our expected return from this portfolio should be derived from illiquidity premia over the long term, and therefore we view this manager appointment as being very much a long-term partnership.
“Overall, the committee is very satisfied with the process that was followed and felt that any one of the three final bidders would have proved a competent manager of our alternatives portfolio.
“In the end we decided to appoint Morgan Stanley because we felt it best understood our brief and that they were very keen to work in partnership with us over the long term.”
Dave Lyons, divisional director at JLT, added: “This was an extremely complex search in which to be involved. Therefore, our process was geared up to deliver support and training where required, and to ultimately provide the members of the pension fund committee with a full understanding of the various nuances of the tenders, and thus provide them with the confidence to be able to make an informed decision.”
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