Fopen, the Italian pension fund for the employees of energy company Enel, has appointed three new asset managers – BNP Paribas, Schroders, and UBS – for its bonds and equity sub-funds while redesigning its strategic asset allocation.
UBS has won a mandate for passive equity investments globally in the Bilanciato Obbligazionario and Bilanciato Azionario sub-funds, while Schroders will actively invest assets in equities globally in both sub-funds.
BNP will actively manage its bond aggregate managing mandate for the two sub-funds, the scheme said.
Fopen has decided to switch to a passive approach for a mandate for equity investments so that the board of directors can take prompt action in the case of underperformance recorded by equity managers, it said.
The pension fund has kept Axa, Eurizon, Pimco and Fisher Asset Management among the asset managers for the two sub-funds, while cutting ties with Candriam, Generali Insurance AM, and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management.
Amundi manages the assets in the Obbligazionario Garantito sub-funds investing largely in bonds and topped up with the funds of severance pay Trattamento di Fine Rapporto (TFR).
The sub-fund Bilanciato Obbligazionario invests mainly in bonds, whereas 35% of the assets are in equities and 10% is split through the fund-of-funds of private equity firm Italia of Fondo Italiano D’Investimento and a mandate for private debt investments.
The sub-fund Bilanciato Azionario invests mostly in equities, with a maximum of 48% of the assets in bonds, and 12% in private equity and private debt.
The scheme plans to further diversify the asset allocation to infrastructure, private equity and debt, and has extended the duration of the portfolio to benefit from rising interest rates, it added.
FIL Gestion and Ardian France are responsible for investing the assets of both sub-funds in private equity, and StepStone in private debt, according to the scheme’s financial statement for 2022.
Last year, Fopen increased by €12m commitments for private equity investments to follow a less risky strategy, it said.
The scheme has started the process to define its new strategic asset allocation, looking at the demographic characteristics of the members, sketching how to allocate the assets, and tendering the mandates for the selection of managers.
It has rebalanced the equity portion, cutting down exposure to European equities in favour of US and global equities, according to targets in the strategic asset allocation, it said.
Assets under management fell year-on-year in 2022 by 8.9% to €2.48bn. The number of members went up by 3.5% last year to 48,848, and contributions increased to €193.03m in 2022 from €187.52m in 2021, according to the financial statement.
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