Taiwan's $15 billion Bureau of Labour Insurance, a state-owned pension fund, has awarded its first four international investment mandates. This is the culmination of a strategy to go offshore that began in earnest in March, when the BLI held a seminar in Taipei seeking comments from the global investment community. After a series of drafts, the final version of the RFP was issued in June and submissions were made in mid-August.
The mandates are scheduled to be funded by mid-November. The BLI is reportedly nearing a decision on a global custodian, which must be ready to accept the investment monies.
Initially the BLI wanted to issue six mandates worth $100 million...