ERAFP, the French pension fund for civil servants, has launched a call for tenders for a set of French small and mid-cap equity mandates for an indicative amount of around €475m in total.

The fund, which has nearly €39bn in assets, has four mandates to award, two active and on a “stand-by” basis. The request for proposal is part of the renewal of its investment mandates.

For these particular mandates ERAFP is looking for non-benchmarked, conviction-based management, with performance superior over the long-term to that of the MSCI France Small Cap index.

Asset managers will need to adhere to the pension fund’s socially responsible investment principles. ERAFP specified this meant analysing issuers according to its criteria to implement a “dynamic best-in-class approach” and identify companies likely to be the subject of shareholder dialogue.

ERAFP is one of a growing number of asset owners to have declared a goal of reducing portfolio emissions to net-zero by 2050.

ERAFP also said managers’ approach must be consistent with the fund’s commitments in terms of monitoring the impact of its investments.

Sycomore Asset Mamangement and Amiral Gestion are currently managing French listed small and mid-cap equities for ERAFP, according to its most recent annual report.

Contracts are for five years, with the possibility of two one-year extensions. 

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