Taiwan’s Bureau of Labor Funds (BLF) has appointed seven asset managers - four foreign and three local - for its NT$70 billion (US$2.22 billion) domestic absolute return equity mandate that was tendered out last month.
The winning bidders are Allianz Global Investors Taiwan, Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co, First Securities Investment Trust Co, HSBC Global Asset Management (Taiwan), Hua Nan Investment Trust, Nomura Asset Management Taiwan, and Schroder Investment Management (Taiwan).
BLF announced the appointments in a statement on November 10. The pension supervisor did not specify the number of firms that would be hired when the tender was opened on October 3.
Funding will be split equally among the seven firms. Each will manage NT$7 billion for the Labor Pension Fund, Taiwan’s largest defined-contribution plan, and NT$3 billion for the Labor Retirement Fund, the largest defined-benefit plan.
This is BLF’s third tender of the year and the first for domestic investments.
It hired five foreign managers, including HSBC Global Asset Management, for a $2.3 billion global climate change mandate in June, and early this month, appointed six foreign firms, including T. Rowe Price International, for a $3 billion multi-asset absolute return global fixed income mandate.
BLF supervises eight pension and annuity funds with NT$5.55 trillion of total assets under management as of September 2022.