France’s 100% SRI fund ERAFP awards US equities mandates to Natixis, Robeco

ERAFP, the €15bn Paris-based French Public Service Additional Pension Scheme – a 100% SRI pension fund – has announced that it has awarded US equities mandates to Natixis Asset Management and Robeco Institutional Asset Management.
A stand-by mandate has been awarded to Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
The assets will be run on a “conviction” basis with no tracking error limit by Natixis’ US-based Loomis, Sayles subsidiary and Robeco’s Robeco Boston Partners arm. They will feature “regular dialogue with the target companies” and comply with ERAFP’s socially responsible investing (SRI) guidelines.

The awards follow a restricted call for tenders in March this year.

The Paris-based fund said the new mandates were in line with its policy of broadening its investment universe and in accordance with the five values of its SRI charter.The portfolios will be invested mainly in US equities with a long-term investment horizon, benchmarked against the MSCI USA index.

The fund said around €300m could be invested over three years. The initial term of the contracts is five years with the possibility for ERAFP to renew each contract for three successive one-year periods.

Earlier this month the fund awarded a €150m French small cap equity mandate to Paris-based Sycomore Asset Management. It also put two other Paris-based managers, Amiral Gestion and Moneta Asset Management, on stand-by for the same brief.

ERAFP manages top-up retirement contributions for 4.6m French civil servants, local authority and public hospital employees. It takes in annual contributions of €1.7bn making it one of the continent’s fastest growing funds. In March last year it took the rare step for a French asset owner of implementing a detailed voting and engagement strategy.