Although the percentage of equities in French institutional portfolios has increased during the past few years, fixed income investments still attract the higher proportion of assets. According to figures from Watson Wyatt, at the end of 2000 French investors only allocated around 13% of total assets to equities and just above 50% to bonds.
Investment in French stocks represented only 5% of total investments, whereas around 7% was invested in other countries within the Euro-zone. Investments in stocks outside the Euro-zone only attracted 0.6% of pension assets. Total exposure to equities represented around 13% of portfolios, from around 10% two years earlier.
French bonds continued to attract more assets than any other fixed income investments, with around 27% of total assets. Other bonds from Euro-land represented 25% of the total portfolios. Exposure to cash and other short-term investments amounted to 33.4% of the portfolios, with real estate investments representing less than 2%.