Northern LGPS, which represents three of the UK’s biggest public-sector pension funds, has selected a number real estate investment managers as it prepares to pursue a more flexible and collaborative approach to the asset class.

The companies will join a new procurement framework set up by the £46bn (€51.bn) pooling partnership between the local government pension funds of Greater Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire.

Last year, Northern LGPS told IPE Real Assets it wanted to open up its real estate investment programme to a greater number of fund managers and like-minded institutional investors through the framework.

Kevin Etchells, investment manager at the Greater Manchester Pension Fund, who has been leading the development of the framework, said it would allow the funds to “open up to a wider pool of managers and… potential partners”.

According to notice on the EU TED tenders service, 12 investment managers have been appointed to a UK property discretionary mandate.

The companies are:

• AEW UK Investment Management

• Aviva Investors

• CBRE Global Investors

• DTZ Investors

• Hermes Investment Management

• LaSalle Investment Management

• Legal & General Investment Management

• M&G Real Estate

• Mayfair Capital Investment Management

• PGIM Real Estate

• Schroder Real Estate Investment Management

• UBS Asset Management

Nine companies have also been appointed for a UK property advisory mandate:

• Aberdeen Standard Investments

• BNP Paribas Real Estate

• CBRE Indirect Investment Services

• DTZ Investors

• LaSalle Investment Management

• Mayfair Capital Investment Management

• Schroder Real Estate Investment Management

The notice also lists of a number of companies appointed for a number of mandates including property management and valuations.

Northern LGPS declined to comment on the appointments, but last year Etchells told IPE Real Assets that the procurement framework would enable the three pension funds to collaborate in the future, either through shared mandates or one-off transactions.

“This framework will provide us the optionality… to be able to procure managers at given times… and procure managers collectively for new allocations,” he said.

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