ERAFP, the €41bn French pension fund for civil servants, has settled on the asset managers it wants to run its euro-denominated credit mandates for at least the next six years.
It has decided to award an active mandate each to Amundi, Ostrum and HSBC Global Asset Management, with Candriam and Groupama Asset Management on standby mandates.
The estimated amount for the active mandates is around €8bn.
The managers are tasked with implementing a buy-and-hold management strategy with the aim of maximising the rate of return on purchase by minimising the risk of default.
They will have to apply ERAFP’s socially responsible investment policy and contribute to the implementation of the climate roadmap that ERAFP has set for itself as part of its participation in the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA).
Managers are allowed to pursue diversification investments in non-investment grade bonds, private debt funds and/or European securitisation.
The mandate award announced today concludes a selection process launched last March. Amundi and Ostrum were the previous incumbents although when the previous mandates were awarded in 2015 it was still a case of Natixis and La Banque Postale; the entities only merged their fixed income asset management and insurance activities in Ostrum in 2020.
ERAFP launched several asset management tenders in 2022. In September this year it wrapped up the search for managers to run real estate portfolios covering France and Europe while in January it awarded new US dollar-denominated corporate bond mandates.
In October 2022 last year it awarded mandates for the management of small and mid-cap equities using an EU Paris-Aligned Benchmark method.
The latest digital edition of IPE’s magazine is now available
No comments yet