FRANCE - FRR, the €34.5bn French national pension reserve fund, says it has dropped Crédit Agricole Asset Management and Capital International Limited following poor performance.

The French fund said today it had decided to terminate a mandate for the portfolio management of small and mid-cap eurozone equities, managed by Crédit Agricole Asset Management since October 2004 but originally contracted to last five years.

The mandate had reached €183.5m to March 31, the fund said.

The second mandate, for the management of a large-cap eurozone equities portfolio now worth €1.164bn, was managed by Capital International Limited from December 2004 and was this time contracted for a duration of four years.

The mandates were terminated "due to the poor financial performances obtained compared with their objectives and their benchmark indices," the fund said in a statement today.

The FRR added all wind-up operations were completed to satisfaction.

The FRR last month issued a request for proposals (RFP) to renew a portion of its mandates invested in European equities.

Contracts with existing managers were close to their expiration date, a spokeswoman for the fund told IPE at the time. (See earlier IPE story: ‘French FRR to renew European equities mandates')

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