ITALY – An Italian institutional investor is looking for asset managers for a corporate bond brief and some pan-European equity mandates.

Sebastiaan Schrikker, director of institutional advisory at Lugano-based Banca Gesfid, which is assisting the institutional investor, told IPE the corporate bond mandate, covering securities rated down to BBB-, would be worth in excess of €40m.

This mandate is benchmarked against the Lehman Pan-European Aggregate Corporate index, Euro-hedged. Managers will be allowed no more than a 10% exposure to single issuers.

The mandate can be invested in issuers from countries in the OECD. Foreign exchange exposure must be actively managed against the euro. Active management of duration is also required.

Schrikker also said the investor would need a number of pan-European equity managers for pan-European equity mandates each in excess of €24m.

The briefs will be totally benchmarked against the MSCI Europe Gross Local Currency. The investor is prepared to consider up to a 10% exposure to single shares. Currency exposure is to be actively managed against the euro.

Deadline for applications is March 21 to Banca Gesfid Institutional Advisory.