Paris-based Groupe des Assurances Generales de France (AGF) will appoint external fund managers this month," according to Claire McCoubrey of Cambridge Associates in London.

This follows two rounds of interviews with short-listed candidates. AGF, she adds, has made its choice and will probably make an announcement shortly.

Cambridge Associates' managing director Sir William Vincent has been assisting AGF in its search for global and emerging market fund managers for investments in equities, bonds and global small-cap stocks, so that the French insurer can diversify internationally and get a higher return from pooled vehicles. It is expected that four or five managers will be appointed to manage AGF's new mandates. These will be at the expense of domestic equity allocations, where some 95% of AGF's assets have been invested so far, with the rest in Europe."