Fondo Fon.Te, the €6bn pension fund for Italy’s commerce, tourism and services sector, has launched a search for managers to oversee €1.61bn in assets across its Sviluppo, Crescita and Dinamico sub-funds.

According to a tender published yesterday, the fund is seeking to award 18 mandates in total – 10 for the ‘Sviluppo’ sub-fund, and four each for ‘Crescita’ and ‘Dinamico’.

Within ‘Sviluppo’, the pension fund plans to award up to five global active bond mandates worth €350m, alongside two global active equity mandates totalling €130m and two balanced active bond mandates with a combined value of €340m.

In the ‘Crescita’ sub-fund, three active balanced mandates are being tendered worth €190m, while the ‘Dinamico’ sub-fund will see three active equity balanced mandates awarded to oversee €180m.

Fon.Te also intends to award three “balanced multi sub-fund” mandates to a single manager to manage €420m across all three sub-funds.

The deadline for applications is 15 September.

According to an update to its investment policy in June, the pension fund has extended its existing mandates, which expired last month, through to 11 November.

The new tender marks Fon.Te’s intention to increase the number of specialised managers across its investment portfolios. Currently, 11 managers oversee the assets in ‘Sviluppo’, ‘Crescita’ and ‘Dinamico’, according to the fund’s 2024 financial statement.

Candriam and Groupama Asset Management manage a combined €593m in the ‘Crescita’ sub-fund, split equally between the two. Anima and Eurizon each manage €283m in the ‘Dinamico’ sub-fund. Eight managers – including AXA Investment Management, UBS Asset Management, Amundi and PIMCO – oversee a total of €2.9bn in the Sviluppo sub-fund.

UnipolSai and UBS AM also manage €189m in the ‘Conservativo’ sub-fund.

The selection process comes at a pivotal time for Fon.Te, as it seeks to expand membership and improve returns.

In a bid to enhance long-term performance, the fund has recently reviewed its investment strategy, including an increased allocation to private markets. As part of that shift, it awarded a multi-asset mandate to DeA Capital.

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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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