The GSIS Complex in Pasay City. (Photo from the GSIS Facebook account)
The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the state-run pension fund for public-sector employees, has postponed its search for more local equity managers.
In a May 13 notice, investment bids and awards committee chair Racquel De Guzman-Buensalida told prospective bidders that the GSIS deferred hiring fund managers “in light of the election period.” The notice was issued days after the May 9 presidential elections.
Back in March, Buensalida said that the GSIS had been “in the process of reviewing and evaluating major provisions of the terms of reference (TOR)” for its procurement of a maximum of 10 additional equity managers, who would invest P10-billion worth of funds in the domestic market.
The TOR review affected the GSIS’s original timetable, which earlier targeted submission of bids last April 8.
The GSIS made available the bidding documents to interested bidders since February 23.
In 2021, the GSIS board approved the hiring of local equity managers through limited source bidding, which meant that they pre-qualified members of the Fund Managers Association of the Philippines (FMAP) as well as the Trust Officers Association of the Philippines (TOAP).
In 2018, the GSIS abandoned its plan to shore up offshore investments as it did not push through with the bidding for two foreign fund managers.
The GSIS board, then chaired by now president and general manager Rolando Macasaet, veered away from the multi-asset strategy shepherded by resigned GSIS chief Jesus Clint Aranas in 2017. It instead set its sights on more domestic investments.