French RI leader, Ircantec, tenders for €1.2bn sovereign debt mandate

Ircantec, the €9.8bn French public pension scheme, which has responsible investment principles as a significant part of its manager selection criteria, has gone to market for an external manager to run a mammoth €1.2bn sovereign debt mandate with dynamic risk management optimisation for issuances in OECD countries.
Ircantec – or to give it its full name in French: L’institution de Retraite Complémentaire des Agents Non Titulaires de l‘État et des Collectivités Publiques – is a pay-as-you-go second pillar pension structure created in 1970. It covers state employees, and regional authority workers, including local politicians, and staff at companies such as EdF and GdF, the big French utilities, and the Banque de France. Its €9.8bn treasury is its contributions buffer for future pension payments. The fund, which is housed within France’s €300bn Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) sovereign wealth fund, carries out its own manager selection.The terms of the mandate are for an initial contract of 5 years, which can be rolled over for three consecutive periods of one year. Applications for the tender have to be received by March 17th.
Ircantec said its tenders judged candidate asset managers on a split of 70% for technical capacity and professional references and 30% on the quality of the organisation itself.
Ircantec has been one of the most active European pension funds on sustainability, notably within its fixed income allocation. In October last year, the fund announced that it was preparing to create a €300m green bond fund, in a bid to “be more selective and more demanding” with its investments into the asset class.
It will amalgamate its €300m of existing green bond investments, which it makes through non-dedicated funds, into one vehicle, with a view to investing more in the future.