FRANCE – The €24.8bn Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites, the French Pensions Reserve Fund, today announced it has short listed asset managers to submit proposals for five SRI mandates worth €600m.

Finalists have until January 12 2006 to answer a series of questions and submit full proposals to the FRR’s executive board.

A date for a final list of candidates has not yet been set.

The fund declined to name names or comment on how many of the roughly 40 asset management companies, which initially submitted proposals in August, had made it onto the list.

The five mandates involve the management of European equities using socially responsible investment criteria.

In 2003, the FRR stated that its investment policy was “to maximize investment returns over the long term and under the best possible conditions of security. Its investment policy must also be consistent with certain shared values that promote economically, socially and environmentally sustainable development”.

While the Fund could not comment on how the €600m would be divided, it did stipulate that it cannot allocate a mandate below €50m.

“We reserve the right to allocate different amounts to different candidates depending on an analysis of the proposals and the candidate,” said a spokesperson.