Auriel article in IPE
IPE Magazine (March 14th 2008)

UK - Dorset County Council Pension fund has appointed two active currency managers to run mandates valued at £35m (€46m). The £1.4bn local government pension scheme has awarded a £20m mandate to, and a further £15m mandate to Auriel Capital Management, both of which came into effect on March 1 2008. Confirmed in August 2007 it planned to tender a £35m active currency mandate to run alongside its existing passive currency hedge, and in December the fund interviewed five shortlisted managers before deciding to split the mandate between Record and Auriel. A recent report submitted by the scheme's investment adviser Allenbridge EPIC Investment Advisers (AEIA) to the in February, revealed the £20m mandate awarded to Record will be "equitised" to the S&P 500 and will be funded by a reduction to the global equities mandate managed by Pictet.

Meanwhile, the mandate will be funded by cash and be benchmarked to seven day LIBOR (London InterBank Offer Rate). The fund, which had a deficit of £115m to March 31 2007, currently has the majority of its investments in UK and overseas equities, with 28.3% allocated to domestic stocks, and 29.1% in global equities, while 20.3% is invested in bonds. However, there is also a target allocation of 10% investment in real estate and 4% into private equity, although property is currently only 9% invested and the private equity allocation, managed by Standard Life and HarbourVest, is only 0.8% invested. In its presentation to the investment committee in February, AEIA confirmed it would "engage" with the two providers as a result, to establish what funds are available for further investments so the committee can decide on further investments at the next meeting in June.