A public pension seeks an active USD high‑yield bond mandate to beat its index over a full cycle, signalling steady demand for specialist credit in public portfolios.
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In October 2025, LD Fonde (LD Pensions) launched a procurement to appoint an investment manager for a USD high‑yield bonds mandate. The brief sets a clear aim: to outperform a relevant index net of costs over a full market cycle. It is a significant mandate from a public pension investor and points to sustained interest in specialist credit exposures.
The notice seeks an investment manager to run LD Pensions’ assets in USD high‑yield bonds through an active approach focused on benchmark outperformance. The requirement is concise but purposeful:
That performance framing places fees and execution discipline at the centre of selection, because any manager will need to deliver returns in excess of the benchmark after costs.
Further operational details are not disclosed in the notice. There is no stated benchmark name, fee structure, or portfolio constraints in the public text. The brief’s simplicity, however, still signals a targeted hire intended to extract alpha from a mature and liquid segment of global credit.
This is not the first time LD Pensions has moved to deepen its bond expertise via open competition. In October 2024, the fund sought an active manager for emerging market sovereign hard‑currency bonds, also with an outperformance objective across a full cycle. Taken together, the two procurements outline a measured expansion across credit sub‑asset classes, using specialist mandates to target relative returns.
Other European public investors are making similar moves, often combining active and indexed sleeves and, in many cases, codifying sustainability aims. In June 2023, Luxembourg’s public pension reserve fund launched a multi‑lot tender spanning emerging market bonds (active and indexed), global small‑cap equities, and a Paris‑aligned global bonds index, explicitly requiring Article 8/9 classifications under the EU’s SFDR for several lots.
In February 2024, France’s compulsory motor insurance guarantee fund sought two managers for emerging market debt with ESG criteria, designating one as an active manager and a second as a stand‑by. That approach underscores resilience and continuity in mandate governance. By contrast, the current LD Pensions notice is silent on ESG and manager redundancy; its focus is on the performance objective in USD high yield.
The LD Pensions brief is unambiguously active. In May 2025, a German public pension arrangement opted for a different tool, seeking a provider to set up and manage an index‑based special AIF in euro corporate bonds with sustainability criteria and a minimum joint investment of EUR 3 billion. That kind of indexed vehicle can deliver broad exposure at scale, often with explicit climate parameters. The Luxembourg fund’s June 2023 lots also split mandates between active and indexed, allowing each to play to its strengths: alpha‑seeking where markets are less efficient, and low‑cost replication where scale and risk control are paramount.
Bond strategies designed to be held to maturity remain part of the toolkit as well. In October 2023, a French deposit guarantee body invited bids for dedicated euro bond funds managed at maturity, emphasising cash‑flow certainty and capital planning. These varied models highlight how public bodies are tailoring fixed‑income exposures to distinct objectives across liquidity, income, and risk.
The LD Pensions mandate lands alongside a steady drumbeat of Nordic public‑sector procurements in asset management. In May 2024, a Finnish university foundation tendered for outsourced portfolios across equities and fixed income, while Denmark’s University of Southern Denmark sought asset management for reserves in February 2024. Most recently, in December 2025, a Danish research funding body went to market for high‑yield bond management via a UCITS with a responsible investment focus, accepting US or global developed market strategies. That aligns closely with LD Pensions’ current brief, albeit with explicit responsibility criteria that are not specified in the LD notice.
Across these mandates, public institutions are using procurement to shape fixed‑income exposure with precision—choosing currency, credit risk, sustainability profile and management style. LD Pensions’ USD high‑yield focus adds another building block to that pattern.
The outcome to watch is the chosen manager’s mandate design: benchmark choice, risk limits and any additional policy constraints that emerge at award. It will also be worth seeing how this USD high‑yield allocation complements LD Pensions’ earlier emerging‑market bond search. Together, these decisions will indicate how the fund is structuring its return‑seeking credit bucket. For the wider market, the notice reinforces a steady flow of public‑sector demand for specialist bond management—active and indexed, domestic and international—shaped through formal competitions.
Investment Management for High Yield Bonds (published October 2025).
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