The €41.7bn additional pension scheme for French civil servants, ERAFP, has awarded an equity mandate worth approximately €300m to an undisclosed asset manager to be benchmarked to the Scientific Beta Eurozone Climate Impact Consistent (CIC) EU PAB Compliant index.

The choice of index reflects ERAFP’s climate commitments, made notably within the framework of the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA), according to Scientific Beta.

The decision by ERAFP is a major vote of confidence in Scientific Beta’s CIC index offering, the firm added. Since 2021, Scientific Beta has been offering these indices with pure climate objectives that allow climate exclusions and weightings to be combined in order to translate companies’ climate alignment engagement into portfolio decisions.

The mandate will be awarded for a four-year term, twice renewable for one year, bringing the maximum term of the mandate to six years, and must be managed while respecting the socially responsible investing principles under which all of ERAFP’s allocations have been managed since 2005, it was announced.

Kin Yee Ng, chief executive officer of Scientific Beta, said: “ The CIC index is the result of robust research that delivers a consistent climate offering on the market. Traditional climate indices and benchmarks, which combine financial and climate criteria, frequently lead to contradictions with compromised climate impact. We believe our CIC indices’ strict focus on climate objectives raises the bar for climate action.”

Institutional investor seeks manager for €70m corporate bonds brief

An institutional investor based in Belgium has tendered a €70m investment grade corporate bonds mandate via IPE Quest.

According to the search (QN-2810), the core active mandate is to follow the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Corporate ex-financial TR EUR index.

Interested asset managers, which are required to to have a minimum track record of five years, need to maintain a local presence in Belgium and should hold a minimum of €2bn in the asset class and €10bn in total assets under management.

The tender notice stated that quantitative strategies as well as passive enhanced strategies are acceptable. It also added that the mandate value is likely to grow to more than €100m in the next few years.

The deadline for this mandate has been set for 3 February, 5pm UK time.

The IPE news team is unable to answer any further questions about IPE Quest, Discovery, or Innovation tender notices to protect the interests of clients conducting the search. To obtain information directly from IPE Quest, please contact Jayna Vishram on +44 (0) 20 3465 9330 or email jayna.vishram@ipe-quest.com.

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