Up to two consultancy gigs are up for grabs at the NZ government pension fund investment manager, Annuitas.
The Wellington-based Annuitas, which manages about $6.6 billion via the Government Superannuation Fund (GSF) and the National Provident Fund (NPF), put a tender out last month covering investment advisory work as well as providing “assurance and guidance on best practices” to the boards of the two underlying entities.
Under the proposal, the duties could be split between two different consultants, primarily to manage conflicts of interest, according to communications with potential submitters.
“However, [having two consultants] is not very efficient and we are very open to one firm performing both roles as long as we have confidence that the firm can successfully mitigate that potential conflict through the elements or structure they bring,” the Annuitas response to questions says.
Russell Investments is the incumbent investment adviser.
Annuitas has budgeted up to 250 hours per year for the total job, divided equally between the two functions.
“… we anticipate an arrangement with a relatively low retainer per annum with the bulk of the hours worked on a charge-out basis,” the request-for-proposal (RFP) document says.
The government pension fund manager also highlights some early tasks for any successful bidder.
For the core investment consultancy component “there may be some technical peer review of work we are doing on the risk budgeting section of our investment framework”, the RFP supplementary Q&A says.
“A review of our currency hedging policy and ratios is due for one of our entities, so we may ask the consultant to either do that work or peer review our own work on the topic (depending on timing). There may also be some manager search and advice in the next few months as well.”
Currently, the $5 billion GSF lists more than 20 underlying managers with the NPF (responsible for eight government-associated defined benefit schemes) investing into a smaller subset of funds.
Annuitas has seen significant staff changes over the last year with both CEO, Tim Mitchell, and chief investment officer, Anthony Halls, appointed last year along with several other executive changes.
Mitchell was previously Willis Towers Watson global head of governance consulting.
Bids on the Annuitas consulting role(s) are due this Wednesday (March 20) with a final decision slated for April 22.