Fondo Espero, the €1.5bn Italian pension fund for school employees, has appointed Schroders and Amundi to manage assets in its ‘Crescita’ sub-fund, following a recent manager selection process.

According to the scheme’s 2024 financial statement, Schroders was awarded a global equity mandate, while Amundi secured a 1-3 year duration global bonds portfolio.

In addition, Eurizon Capital has been selected to manage a tail risk hedge mandate designed to protect the fund’s allocations against extreme market volatility.

All three mandates came into effect on 1 April and will run for a period of three years.

‘Crescita’ is the largest of Fondo Espero’s three sub-funds, managing €1.3bn in assets.

Prior to the latest round of manager changes, existing mandates within ‘Crescita’ included State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), Allianz Global Investors, Groupama, Epsilon, Vontobel Asset Management and AXA Investment Managers.

According to the financial statement, AXA IM managed a €252m portfolio via a global aggregate bond mandate, while Vontobel oversaw close to €500m across two global aggregate bond mandates, including a 1–3 year duration bonds strategy. SSGA was responsible for €231m in global equities.

Allianz GI managed €205m through an all-country equity strategy, Groupama €119m via a monetary mandate, and Epsilon around €6m through a tail risk mandate, the statement added.

Following the latest review, Groupama and SSGA have retained their mandates in the ‘Crescita’ sub-fund.

Fondo Espero also updated its investment policy last year, following the renewal of mandates with Epsilon (tail risk) and Vontobel (1–3 year duration bonds), and a review of its strategic asset allocation. This included the launch of a new ‘Dinamico’ investment option, targeting higher-risk exposures.

‘Dinamico’ allocates 60% of its assets to equities in developed and emerging markets, and 40% to global investment grade bonds with currency hedging. Eurizon was selected to manage this sub-fund, with the first contributions flowing into the strategy from January this year.

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Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

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