The trustees of the MHCB London Final Salary Scheme, the UK pension scheme of Mizuho Corporate Bank, have selected the AIG Diversified Strategies Fund II for an investment of GBP9.5m, appr
The trustees of the MHCB London Final Salary Scheme, the UK pension scheme of Mizuho Corporate Bank, have selected the AIG Diversified Strategies Fund II for an investment of GBP9.5m, approximately 20 per cent of the market value of the MHCB scheme.
The MHCB scheme was formed following the merger in April 2002 of three Japanese banks to create Mizuho, one of the country’s largest banks, and contains the pension schemes of the former London branches of the three banks.
The decision to allocate to the AIG fund of hedge funds was taken by the scheme’s trustees in order to achieve superior absolute returns as well as add diversification to the overall pension scheme portfolio. Liability Solutions assisted the trustees in the selection procedure and the selection of AIG Global Investment Group as the manager through a competitive tender process.
Says Mike Smith, chairman of the scheme’s trustees: ‘After a comprehensive selection process from among several strong candidates, the trustees felt that AIG Global Investment Group’s fund of hedge funds product best suited our desire to achieve absolute returns in a risk-controlled manner.’
Phil Irvine, director of advisory services at Liability Solutions, says: ‘AIG Global Investment Group’s culture of rigorous risk management combined with the substantial resources at their disposal was a significant factor in the selection process.
‘The selected manager was able to demonstrate a long history of being able to achieve the targeted absolute return objectives in a controlled and de-correlated manner.’
Mizuho Corporate Bank is the corporate and investment banking subsidiary of Mizuho Financial Group, Japan’s second largest financial services company, and was created through the transfer of the corporate and investment banking businesses of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and Fuji Bank to Industrial Bank of Japan.
AIG Global Investment Group, which has capabilities in equity, fixed income, multi-manager hedge funds, private equity, and real estate, managed more than USD638bn in assets and employed over 1,800 professionals in 44 offices around the world at the end of September last year.
AIGGIG comprises a group of international companies that provide investment advice and market asset management products and services to clients around the world. Its total assets under management include some USD540bn of assets affiliated to American International Group, the investment group’s parent.
Liability Solutions, which provides investment consultancy services for institutions, specialises in absolute return and funds of hedge fund mandates, and since 2002 has conducted assignments covering assets of more than USD6bn.
