Tender: Bristol: pension investment services

UK-Bristol: pension investment services

2009/S 232-332531

CONTRACT NOTICE

Services

SECTION I: CONTRACTING AUTHORITY

I.1) NAME, ADDRESSES AND CONTACT POINT(S):

Address: Organisation: The Environment Agency,

Rio House, Aztec West

, Contact: H O Procurement, Attn: Layla Boukhemkhem, Country code: UK-Bristol Postal code: BS32 4UD. Tel. +44 1454205583. E-mail: layla.boukhemkhem@environment-agency.gov.uk.

Internet address(es):

General address of the contracting authority: www.environment-agency.gov.uk.

Further information can be obtained at: As in above-mentioned contact point(s).

Specifications and additional documents (including documents for competitive dialogue and a dynamic purchasing system) can be obtained at: As in above-mentioned contact point(s).

Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: As in above-mentioned contact point(s).

I.2) TYPE OF THE CONTRACTING AUTHORITY AND MAIN ACTIVITY OR ACTIVITIES:

National or federal agency/office.

Environment.

The contracting authority is purchasing on behalf of other contracting authorities: no.

SECTION II: OBJECT OF THE CONTRACT

II.1) DESCRIPTION
II.1.1) Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority:

24094 Pension fund investment management - global bond portfolios.

II.1.2) Type of contract and location of works, place of delivery or of performance:

Services.

Service category: No 6.

Main place of performance: Throughout England and Wales.

NUTS code: Location: "UNITED KINGDOM">UK.

II.1.3) The notice involves:

A public contract.

II.1.4) Information on framework agreement:
II.1.5) Short description of the contract or purchase(s):

The investment management of a global bond portfolio with an estimated value of between 10 000 000 GBP to 150 000 000 GBP (or between 11 000 000 EUR to 167 000 000 EUR).

It is anticipated that the appointment and funding will be for one or more managers with funding of the manager(s) subject to our investment strategy review and strategic asset allocation.

The portfolio (preferably segregated but a pooled fund may be considered) is to be actively managed to achieve excess returns from global bonds preferably on a basic maintenance and performance-related fee basis. One or more investment philosophy, process or product may be used. We expect the majority of the portfolio to be invested in fixed rate investment grade bonds denominated in the major currencies, to achieve the mandate objectives.

The financial out-performance target for the fund performance net of fees is to exceed a suitable global bond benchmark return by a minimum of +1.0 per cent per annum on a rolling three year basis within an agreed maximum risk budget. This may be adjusted lower to less than +1per cent if the benefit is justified.

In addition to mainstream bond managers with a strong and credible process we are also looking for bond managers who incorporate and integrate financially material environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in line with best practice sustainable environmentally responsible investment. While integration of ESG issues are important to us we are also keen to hear from all global bond fund managers able to offer excellent returns.

In terms of integrating ESG factors, we are open to a broad range of product types and or combinations of bond products including green or sustainable bond products. Although in no way limited to, these could include traditional bond mandate with an ESG overview, allocations to green bonds, climate change bonds, supranational and agency bonds, weather catastrophe bonds, and other environmental or sustainability bond products. Our preference is for positive bond selection using financial and sustainable criteria rather than negative screening.

We are open to the use of either in-house or external company research and/or partnering with third parties on the integration of ESG issues into the managers investment strategy. Other innovative approaches may also be considered.

We are signatories of the UN Principles for Responsible investment (UNPRI) and we would expect the manager to be a member of or be willing to participate in the UNPRI and or support other global initiatives such as UN Environmental Programme - Finance Institutions (UNEP - FI) and or the UN Global Compact.

We are open to proposals for new concepts, strategies and teams. We will allow proposals where certain aspects may be contingent on appointment.

The appointed investment manager will be expected to manage the assets in accordance with the Local Government Pension Scheme regulations and the Agency Statement of Investment Principles, Corporate Governance and Environmental Overlay strategies and reporting requirements. For further details please see our website www//environment-agency.gov.uk/pensions.

II.1.6) Common procurement vocabulary (CPV):

CPV code: "Pension investment services">66131100 .

II.1.7) Contract covered by the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA):

Yes.

II.1.8) Division into lots:

No.

II.1.9) Variants will be accepted:

Yes.

II.2) QUANTITY OR SCOPE OF THE CONTRACT
II.2.1) Total quantity or scope:
II.2.2) Options:

Yes.

Description of these options: The investment management agreement(s) are expected to initially run for three years with possible extension periods of up to 3 years subject to delivery of our annual and rolling performance targets as assessed at regular performance reviews. Reserve managers will be appointed and may be used during any part of the initial three years and possible extension period. Under the Local Government Pension Scheme regulations, the Agency may terminate its investment contracts at any time.

Provisional timetable for recourse to these options: in months: 36 (from the award of the contract).

II.3) DURATION OF THE CONTRACT OR TIME-LIMIT FOR COMPLETION:

Duration in months: 72 (from the award of the contract).

SECTION III: LEGAL, ECONOMIC, FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION

III.1) CONDITIONS RELATING TO THE CONTRACT
III.1.1) Deposits and guarantees required:
III.1.2) Main financing conditions and payment arrangements and/or reference to the relevant provisions regulating them:
III.1.3) Legal form to be taken by the group of economic operators to whom the contract is to be awarded:

Each economic operator to be jointly and severally liable for the performance of the contract.

III.1.4) Other particular conditions to which the performance of the contract is subject:
III.2) CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATION
III.2.1) Personal situation of economic operators, including requirements relating to enrolment on professional or trade registers:

Information and formalities necessary for evaluating if requirements are met: Requests to participate must be accompanied by the following:

Proof of relevant authorisations under the Financial Services and Markets Act or equivalent legislation. Details of all instances where the supplier (or any parent or subsidiary of the supplier) has had a licence revoked or been fined by any relevant regulatory body. Details of any outstanding disciplinary action before any relevant regulatory body. Where any registrations are outstanding, progress and details of applications should be provided, and clearly any appointment will be contingent of completion of outstanding applications.

Complete as much as is practicable of the bfinance questionnaire to provide the required quantitative information: Monthly stream of performance data to enable tabulation and calculation of annual performance data (to GIPS standard) for the 3 or preferably 5 individual financial years ended 30.9.2009 (where available), rolling three and preferably five year periods, preferably from comparable UK or EU pension funds with similar performance targets. Please ensure data is in Pounds Sterling and include details of comparable benchmark(s) with over/ (under) performance. (The bfinance quantitative questionnaire needs to be obtained by email from the Environment Agency Pension Fund Management Team at EAPF@environment-agency.gov.uk).

Summary of investment process (max. 500 words).

Summary of your approach to managing risk including currency risk, credit risk and duration risk (max 250 words).

An explanation (max. 500 words) of how sustainable environmentally responsible investment and corporate environmental governance could be integrated into the bond selection and mandate construction process. Please include details of how internal and external research and tools and techniques are used and their relative importance to the investment process.

Please attach a typical portfolio of individual securities. If possible also attach a tabular breakdowns of asset greenness (Please define criteria of greenness).

Summary of your maintenance and performance related fee scales including any discounts linked to mandate size or asset values, and details of hurdle and caps and fee rebate scales for under-performance against benchmark and/or target.

Copies of enquirers Corporate Governance, ESG and SRI policies and names of external research, engagement, voting, and other service providers used on these topics, and your membership to organisations such as UNPRI, UNEP-FI EUROSIF, UKSIF and IIGCC. Please note that this could include policies and engagement services traditionally used for equity products where synergies could be extracted.

If a signatory of the UNPRI, please provide a copy your last questionnaire response and assessment report if possible.

Details of corporate structure and ownership together with most recent company annual report and audited accounts;

Number of bond investment management staff by activity and geographical location. Brief CVs of the investment team proposed including your corporate governance and SRI staff who will advise on our mandate;

Details as at 30.9.2009 of:

Total assets under management GBP and number of funds;

UK Pension Fund assets under management GBP and number of funds;

Bond assets under management GBP, and number of bond mandates.

Global bond mandate assets under management GBP, and number of global bond mandates.

III.2.2) Economic and financial capacity:
III.2.3) Technical capacity:
III.2.4) Reserved contracts:

No.

III.3) CONDITIONS SPECIFIC TO SERVICES CONTRACTS
III.3.1) Execution of the service is reserved to a particular profession:

Yes.

Requests to participate will only be accepted from investment managers which conform to the definition of investment manager in Article 4 of the Local Government Pension Scheme (Management and Investment of Funds) Regulations 1998 (as amended). This will include:

(a) firms authorised by the UK Financial Services Authority with permission to manage investments (and which may lawfully manage the assets of occupational pension schemes); and

(b) EEA firms which are authorised in their home state and have permission to manage investments (and may lawfully manage the assets of occupational pension schemes).

The manager would need to comply with the requirements of the Local Government Pension Scheme (Management and Investment of Funds) Regulations 1998 (and as revised), and agree contractually to comply with the requirements of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the FSA Handbook of Rules and Guidance or, if the manager is regulated overseas, with the overseas equivalent. The manager will also need to assist the client to comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

III.3.2) Legal entities should indicate the names and professional qualifications of the staff responsible for the execution of the service:

No.

SECTION IV: PROCEDURE

IV.1) TYPE OF PROCEDURE
IV.1.1) Type of procedure:

Restricted.

IV.1.2) Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate:

Envisaged number of operators 5.

IV.1.3) Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue:

Recourse to staged procedure to gradually reduce the number of solutions to be discussed or tenders to be negotiated no.

IV.2) AWARD CRITERIA
IV.2.1) Award criteria:

The most economically advantageous tender in terms of the criteria stated in the specifications, in the invitation to tender or to negotiate or in the descriptive document.

IV.2.2) An electronic auction will be used:

No.

IV.3) ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
IV.3.1) File reference number attributed by the contracting authority:

24094.

IV.3.2) Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract:

No.

IV.3.3) Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents or descriptive document:

Payable documents: no.

IV.3.4) Time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate:

8.1.2010 - 16:00.

IV.3.5) Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates:
IV.3.6) Language(s) in which tenders or requests to participate may be drawn up:

English.

IV.3.7) Minimum time frame during which the tenderer must maintain the tender:
IV.3.8) Conditions for opening tenders:

Persons authorised to be present at the opening of tenders: no.

SECTION VI: COMPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

VI.1) THIS IS A RECURRENT PROCUREMENT:

No.

VI.2) CONTRACT RELATED TO A PROJECT AND/OR PROGRAMME FINANCED BY EU FUNDS:

No.

VI.3) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The Environment Agency reserves the right to discontinue the procurement process at any time, which shall include the right not to award a framework or contract, and does not bind itself to accept the lowest tender, or any tender received, and reserves the right to award the framework or contract in part, or to call for new tenders should it consider this necessary.

The Environment Agency shall not be liable for any costs or expenses incurred by any candidate or tenderer in connection with the completion and return of the information requested in this Contract Notice, or in the completion or submission of any tender.

VI.4) PROCEDURES FOR APPEAL
VI.4.1) Body responsible for appeal procedures:
VI.4.2) Lodging of appeals:

Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals: The Environment Agency will incorporate a minimum 10 calendar day standstill period at the point information on the award of the contract is communicated to tenderers. This period allows unsuccessful tenderers to seek further debriefing from the contracting authority before the contract is entered into. Applicants have 2 working days from notification of the award decision to request additional debriefing and that information has to be provided a minimum of 3 working days before expiry of the standstill period. Such additional information should be requested from the address in section I.1.

If an appeal regarding the award of a contract has not been successfully resolved the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No 5) provide for aggrieved parties who have been harmed or are at risk of harm by a breach of the rules to take action in the High Court (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). Any such action must be brought promptly (generally within 3 months). Where a contract has not been entered into the court may order the settling aside of the award decision or order the authority to amend any document and may award damages. If the contract has been entered into the court may only award damages.

VI.4.3) Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained:
VI.5) DATE OF DISPATCH OF THIS NOTICE:

30.11.2009.