ITALY- Fopadiva, the one million-euro closed pension fund for employees in the Valle d’ Aosta semi-autonomous region, is seeking up to two asset managers for a balanced mandate.

In the official request for tenders, the board of Fopadiva, or Fondo Pensione Complementare per i Lavoratori Dipendenti della Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta, stated the fund was expected to increase to around six million euros by the end of 2006.

Twenty per cent of the assets should be invested in short-term bonds, 60% would go into long-term bonds while the equity allocation would be 20%.

The chosen benchmarks are the J P Morgan Euro Cash Six Months, J P Morgan EGBI equities and MSCI Europe.

The mandate, a spokesman for the fund said, has a three year-term and in case two managers were selected, it would be equally split among them.

The successful candidates will be chosen through a three-step selection process, which starts with the examination of questionnaires that applying managers must fill in Italian on the internet and paper.

The boards will then shortlist a maximum of eight managers and invite them for interview. When two candidates are chosen, the directors will hold a further meeting to discuss the terms of the contract.

The fund hopes to complete the selection by the end of June, the spokesman said. The closing date is April 26.

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