ITALY - The FondoPoste pension fund has restructured its asset management and appointed seven external managers to take care of its €100m of assets.

All assets of the complementary pension fund for Italian postal workers were previously managed by its depository bank Unicredit Banca but the fund began seeking external managers last summer to take on parts of the new investment structure.

This revamp was aimed at diversifying investments, investing the portfolio efficiently, spreading risk, controlling costs and maximising yields, the fund said.

Investment is now divided into two compartments - guaranteed and balanced - the fund said in a statement. The balanced component is structured as three lines of investment - safe, balanced and dynamic - and one line of active currency management, to be 80% invested in bonds and 20% in equities.

The fund's guaranteed component, which is also set to receive the TFR severance pay inflows, is invested mostly in bonds as just with 5% will be held in shares.

FondoPoste has appointed Generali Asset Management S.g.r. to manage the ‘safe' element, accounting for 25% of the assets in this compartment. ABN Amro and Monte Paschi di Siena Asset Management will manage the ‘balanced line', with each managing 25% of the compartment's assets, and Credit Suisse First Boston manages the remaining 25% dynamic line.

BNP Paribas Asset Management has also been awarded the currency mandate, while the guaranteed element will be run by Compagnia Assicuratrice Unipol S.p.A. and JP Morgan, said FondoPoste.

The fund had previously stated the ‘safe' investment allocation was to be invested mainly in bonds with a 10% limit on equities investment while the balanced mandate is able to invest up to 30% in equities with the rest in fixed income, and the dynamic line can invest up to 60% in equities.

FondoPoste's assets totalled €92.5m at the end of last year, but the fund has said members' contributions are worth around €50m a year.

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