Russell Investments has won a nine-figure fixed income mandate from a local government pension scheme in Scotland.
The asset manager has agreed to invest £100m on behalf of the North-East Scotland Pension Fund (NESPF), which covers government workers in Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray.
The capital will be invested through Russell’s Multi-Asset Credit Fund, which offers exposure to personal, corporate and government balance sheets.
The mandate, which was completed through a pooled fund, builds on the existing relationship between the two parties. Russell already provides implementation, transition management, liquidity management and FX trading services to the pension scheme.
Russell’s Multi-Asset Credit Fund is just part of the £44m of fixed income assets it has under the care of several specialist managers.
Russell Investments’ head of UK institutional, Jim Leggate, believes that the multi-manager approach works especially well when investing in credit.
“Single manager products are often skewed to their specific skill-set rather than the overall opportunity, meaning that they are not able to look across the entire investment universe,” he added.
“The multi-manager approach also helps overcome manager capacity challenges whilst ensuring low governance for NESPF, as the ongoing monitoring and due diligence of the specialist managers is integral to the investment process.”
NESPF investment manager Graham Buntain said the deal will diversify the scheme’s fixed income allocations into higher yielding parts of the market and reduce exposure to equities.
“We recognise the limitations of a single manager accessing the full spectrum of the opportunity set, and feel the multi-manager approach provides a better platform for success,” he added.
“The MAC Fund has allowed us access to an all-encompassing strategy at a competitive price, and with a low governance burden.”
