Aviva Investors announced that it has won a mandate from the Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) pension scheme to be managed by their real estate multi-manager team.

The scheme will have a £100m to invest in a diversified and actively managed portfolio of UK unlisted real estate funds.

RHM is part of the Premier Foods Group, Britain's largest food producer and responsible for brands such as Mr Kipling cakes, Bisto gravy, Hovis bread and Loyd Grossman sauces. According to data held by Pension Funds Online, the RHM pension scheme is valued at more than £2.5bn and has 46,000 members. During the tendering process the scheme was advised by Aon Hewitt. 

The mandate win brings the assets managed by the Aviva Investors' real estate multi-manager team to over £5.5bn on behalf of a range of institutional clients including local authority and corporate pension funds. 

John Gellatly, head of European real estate multi-manager at Aviva Investors, said: "Winning such a high profile mandate is testament to the depth and expertise of our offering and the desire of clients, regardless of size, to continue to secure diversified exposure to the real estate sector through a multi-manager approach. Real estate is one of our key strengths and we were able to demonstrate both our depth of real estate expertise and effective risk management, both of which are key requirements for clients in today's uncertain economic environment."

First published 25.10.2012

azeevalkink@wilmington.co.uk