The Italian pension scheme for psychologists, Enpap, has underwritten “residual commitments” of €313m for private equity, private debt and infrastructure investments, it said in a document handed over to the parliamentary committee investigating pension funds’ real economy investments.

The scheme has committed €196.8m to private equity and venture capital investments, €98.8m to private debt and €17.4m to infrastructure, it added.

The commitments will help the scheme reach its 14% target allocation for private market investments, set by its strategic asset allocation over the next three years.

Enpap is still under-invested in alternatives, as it has only recently started investing in private markets, said Riccardo Rasi, head of the scheme’s finance department, speaking before the committee.

The pension fund allocated 8.4% of total assets to alternatives, 12.4% to real estate, 24.8% to equities, 52.1% to bonds, and 2.3% to cash, as of the end of 2023, according to the document.

The scheme has started to robustly invest in private markets in 2020, in times of lower interest rates, it explained.

It has opted to invest in “dedicated funds of funds” (FoF) to optimise the administrative management and reduce structural costs, while maintaining a certain degree of diversification and access to national and international managers, it added.

Last year, the scheme underwrote commitments of €150m in a FoFs that it set up, the PSY ENPAP Private Equity II fund, a venture capital investment vehicle investing 25% in Italy.

Enpap has also underwritten commitments of €100m in the PSY ENPAP Private Debt Fund last year, investing in third-party private debt managers and funds, with the goal to commit at least 10% to Italian investments.

Assets under management have grown in the last 10 years by 168% to reach over €2.3bn. The scheme’s funding ratio stood at 137.1% at the end of last year.

Enpap’s 2024 strategic asset allocation targets 14% in liquid and illiquid alternatives, 14.5% in real estate and infrastructure, 25% in equities, 44.5% in bonds, and 2% in cash.

“The aim of the new asset allocation is challenging, a 1.9% real return in the longer period, meaning 4% nominal based on expected inflation,” Rasi added.

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Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

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