ITALY – The Italian pension fund for public transport workers, Fondo Pensione Priamo, has chosen its asset managers – all of whom are Italian.

Priamo, which is assisted by consultant Consulenza Istituzionale SpA, was authorised by pension regulator Covip last February. The fund has said that its capital value was expected to be around €60m by the end of 2004.

The new managers are RAS Asset Management SGR, Generali Asset Management, San Paolo IMI, Fineco Asset Management and Pioneer Investment Management SGR. They have begun their mandates this month.

The fund has a management strategy commonly known as “mono comparto”. Eighty-five percent of its funds will be invested in a core portfolio, split in one Euro zone and non-Euro zone sub-portfolios of the same value.

This portfolio absorbs 85% of the fund’s resources and is invested in bonds and equities 76:24. The remaining 15% has been invested in a global small cap equities active portfolio.

Managers will be remunerated according to the “high water mark” principle, “in order to consider both positive and negative performance” it was explained in a statement.

Priamo, named after the last king of Troy, was unavailable for comment today due to a public holiday.

In its 2003 report, Covip set Priamo’s potential membership at 120,000. Last June the fund had recruited more than a quarter of its potential membership.

Employers and employees have to contribute 2% each to the fund and monthly contributions are expected to be around €2.5m a month.

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