Italian fund overhauls strategy, awards €1.6bn in mandates

Fondo Pensione Nazionale BCC CRA, the €3bn pension fund for Italy’s cooperative bank employees, has appointed 13 asset managers to oversee €1.6bn in assets as part of a sweeping review of its strategic asset allocation.

According to the scheme’s 2024 financial statement, Azimut, Anima, and Groupama Asset Management have secured an active balanced mandate worth €288m. Amundi, Fidelity International, Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), and PIMCO have been tasked with managing €366m under an active corporate bond mandate.

GSAM replaces Abrdn, which no longer holds the necessary UCITS permissions to manage the scheme’s SICAV fund domiciled in Luxembourg, BCC CRA disclosed.

Azimut, Eurizon Capital, and Pictet Asset Management have been appointed to run an active equity mandate for €204m. Meanwhile, Generali Insurance Asset Management, Eurizon, Threadneedle Asset Management, Franklin Templeton, and Payden & Rygel will manage €760.5m under an active government bond mandate.

The latest round of manager appointments follows a broader decision to diversify portfolios via new “specialist and balanced world mandates”, with an emphasis on global market exposure. A new SICAV structure has also been established to streamline investment in liquid asset classes.

Strategic review 2025–2027

The mandate awards are part of a wider restructuring of both liquid and illiquid portfolios for the 2025–27 period, as several existing private market investments reach maturity.

BCC CRA is now allocating capital across five macro asset classes: monetary, bonds (listed and private), equities (listed and private), absolute return, and real assets.

Under the revised strategy, the €2.4bn ‘Raccolta’ sub-fund will tilt towards developed market government bonds while scaling back exposure to higher-risk segments such as investment-grade corporate credit and emerging market equities.

The ‘Crescita’ sub-fund, worth €435m, is also increasing its exposure to developed market sovereign and investment-grade corporate bonds, at the expense of emerging market debt, high yield, and private credit.

‘Semina’, the €390m sub-fund, is boosting allocations to investment-grade corporate bonds and, to a lesser extent, developed market sovereigns, while reducing exposure to emerging market debt, high yield, and private debt.

Across all three sub-funds, the pension fund will trim allocations to absolute return strategies in favour of fixed income, anticipating improved yields, the statement noted.

Ahead of the strategic overhaul, BCC CRA had already revised its illiquid portfolio by reducing infrastructure and real estate exposure from 13% to 9%, reallocating capital to private equity and private debt.

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