Fondo Pensione Complementare dei Giornalisti Italiani, Italy’s second-pillar scheme for journalists, is looking to assign six mandates for €376m worth of assets, close to 80% of its total assets under management.

The €473m scheme has launched a search for managers for its ‘Prudente’ and ‘Mix’ sub-funds, both passive and active ones, to invest both directly and through UCITS-compliant vehicles.

The mandates will last for three years.

Within the Prudente sub-fund, Fondo Giornalisti will appoint managers for three passive portfolios of €115m in Treasury bonds, €57m in corporate bonds and €36m in equities, respectively.

The scheme sets a 10% maximum exposure to emerging markets for the €115 Treasury bond portfolio.

Up for grabs in the Prudente sub-fund is also an actively managed ‘variable risk budget’ portfolio worth €46m, consisting of currency and equity assets.

Within the Mix sub-fund, Fondo Giornalisti is looking for a passive manager of a €70m mixed bond portfolio (government and corporate) and an active one for €52m worth of assets, 90% of which will be invested in global equities, while the remainder will be invested in the currency markets.

Davide Cipparrone of Mangusta Risk, which is assisting the scheme in the selection process, said Fondo Giornalisti was looking to review the asset allocation of the two sub-funds to achieve greater diversification for its portfolio.

He added: “The goal was to structure a tender that is going to be as attractive as possible for the best asset managers on the market, as well as achieving the right balance of active and passive management of the portfolio”.

In other news, corporate credit specialist manager Muzinich has raised €156m from Italian and non-Italian institutional investors to set up a closed-end Italian debt fund that will finance Italian SMEs.

The five-year Italian Private Debt Fund will invest in companies with revenues of between €50m and €500m and EBITDA of at least €7.5m.

The fund targets a 7% IRR for investors.

The fund has generated significant interest from both Italian and non-Italian institutional investors, including Swiss and German ones, according to Muzinich management.

A further round of financing is expected later this year.

The Italian Private Debt Fund will work with lenders to provide capital for companies that are struggling to access credit through other channels, but will avoid firms in operational recovery or start-ups.

It will invest in companies in the industrials, consumer goods, food, luxury, retailing, healthcare, communications, transport and business services sectors.

Companies will be given 5-7 year term financing of between €10m and €20m.

Muzinich, which currently manages €20.8bn of assets, is looking to set up similar funds in other European markets, including Spain and the UK.

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