The board of directors of Fondazione Enasarco, the Italian pension fund for sales representatives, will invest €500m in Italian treasury bonds (BTP) – the first step under a new strategic asset allocation.

The board unanimously approved the new strategic asset allocation, it said in a statement.

President Alfonsino Mei said: “Enasarco continues to implement a policy to protect sale representatives, and at the same time invests in the real economy of the country”.

Enasarco held Italian government bonds worth €373m in its portfolio, as of 31 December last year, generating a total gross income of €6m.

The gross return achieved by Enarsarco with the investment was 1.6% in 2021, according to the pension fund’s financial statement for 2021.

Last year Enasarco recorded a gross return on total assets, at book value, of 1.3%, down from 1.7% in 2020. Returns stood at 0.5% net of taxes and write-downs.

It invested 14.5% of its assets totalling €7.64bn in cash, 2% in money market mutual funds, 5.6% in bonds, 38.2% in investment funds, including 19.6% in equity and ETF funds, 12.2% in bonds funds, 0.7% in private debt and 5.7% in private equity funds.

The pension fund also allocated 10.3% of its assets to alternatives and 29.3% to real estate, including 5.1% in direct property, 9% in real estate funds and 15.2% in real estate properties sold to real estate funds, according to the financial statement.

The asset classes generating the best returns last year were bond funds with 3.2%, and investments in private markets, with 6.9% for private debt and 6.5% for private equity.

According to the financial statement, one of the goals of the new strategy was to cut investments in real estate and increase exposure to liquid asset classes such as bonds and equities, and to private equity, private debt and infrastructure.

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