The London arm of SG Asset Management could be in line to lose a £400m (€593m) UK equity brief put out to tender by Kent County Council pension scheme.
Nick Vickers, head of financial services, confirmed Kent had decided to market-test the brief, which SG Asset Management has held since 2001. Vickers refused to say whether performance was an issue but SG's UK 350 pooled fund has lagged the index over one, three and five years. The firm, owned by French banking group Société Générale, was reorganised following manager defections. The bank has gained more influence over London. Jean-Baptiste Segard, who sits on its Paris asset management executive committee, is set to become chief executive in January. Consultants said UK local authority pension funds review their mandates every three or five years. Kent will take a decision on SG next year. The pension fund is not tendering any other mandates. The SG UK 350 specialist fund returned 13.5% over the 12 months to September, against 14.7% for the FTSE All-Share benchmark. It was also behind the index over three and five years, according to Caps pooled fund data. Two UK equity managers left this year. Hugh Sergeant, former head of UK equities, and former small-cap manager Richard Staveley, were recruited by River & Mercantile Asset Management. Chief investment officer John Richards, previously co-chief executive, has decided to focus on UK equity performance. Colin Riddles has been hired from HSBC Investments as lead manager of SG's smaller companies fund. SG has run a UK equity brief for Kent since 2001, when Nicola Horlick co-led SG with Keith Percy. She left two years later. Percy, now chairman, works on a part-time basis. Schroders holds a £385m brief from Kent and originally held a multi-asset class mandate, which was broken up into three portfolios. Kent's overseas equities are managed by Baillie Gifford, while three global equities mandates are managed by Schroders, GMO and Alliance Bernstein. Schroders and Goldman Sachs Asset Management have fixed income briefs.
