Trustees of the Serco Pension and Life Assurance Scheme have chosen Blackrock to manage £1.5bn of its funds.
The liability driven investing (LDI) portfolio was previously spilt between three mandates, but has been handed to a single manager as part of a 10-year plan to wipe out the scheme’s deficit.
Blackrock, which has £5.7trn under management, won a beauty parade to secure the mandate from the trustees of the outsourcer’s retirement funds.
The scheme’s chair, Guy Leach, said that despite the scheme being in a strong position, efficiencies could be achieved by moving its LDI portfolio into one mandate.
“Having the ability to onboard and transition the funds seamlessly was a key requirement when choosing an investment manager,” he added.
“The team at Blackrock showed real strength and expertise in LDI, and we were confident that they were best placed to handle the transitions of the three existing portfolios and manage the risks that came with this.”
Blackrock’s managing director of UK institutional, Graham Jung, said transferring the previous assets into one portfolio was complex, but this is where the asset manager’s relationship with banks and counterparties came to the fore.
“We believe that Blackrock’s scale provides us with superior access to markets, ensuring clients are able to get exposure to the hedging instruments they need.”
This continues a good summer for Blackrock at securing mandates from pension schemes. In June it was put in charge of the T-Mobile International UK Pension Scheme’s investment strategy.
