28/07/2009 East Sussex tenders absolute return The £1.5bn pension fund for the East Sussex County Council has issued a tender for an absolute return manager. According to the tender, the South East England pension fund will allocate around £150m to a traditional multi-asset absolute return manager, a mandate of around 10% of the pension fund. Both long-only and hedge funds will be considered for the mandate, a spokesperson at the pensionâs consultant, Hymans Robertson, confirmed. âWe have never invested in hedge funds before,â said John Shepherd of East Sussex County Council. âWe are leaning towards a 15% allocation to alternatives which could include a hedge fund.â Only funds that have a three year track record will be considered for the mandate. The council is yet to finalise a performance objective, however it is expected that it will generate excess returns over 3 month Sterling LIBOR by a significant margin (expected to be 3 % or higher), over rolling 3-5 year periods. The successful manager must have experience of managing an absolute return strategy for a local authority.