SWITZERLAND – The SFr10bn (€6.8bn) Swiss Post Office pension fund is to begin searching for additional asset managers in March, having already selected UBS Asset Management, Credit Suisse Asset Management and Pictet to run various portfolios for the recently-created fund.

Though no formal details on portfolio composition are yet available, a spokesperson for the fund, which is federal-wide and has a potential membership of 55,000, said that as much as SFr 3.5bn (e2.4bn) could be placed internationally.

The new fund is a result of the rumoured break-up of Switzerland’s largest pension fund, the €22.4bn Pensionskasse des Bundes, which is the pension fund for federal employees.

The new fund will be split 40% fixed income, 35% equities, 15% real estate and 10% in mortgages granted to plan members.

“Although we cannot say at this point who will manage what, we can say that we will start looking for further equity managers and managers for the real estate portfolios,” says the spokesman.

The spokesman says that alternative investment classes such as private equity and hedge funds are not ruled out but won’t form part of the initial strategy. “We will probably look into broadening the asset allocation strategy to include alternatives next year.”

Investment consultancy for the new fund goes to PPC Metrics, whilst UBS will act as global custodian and PricewaterhouseCoopers as actuaries.



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