France’s SWF names manager selection committee

France’s €33 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Fonds de Reserve Pour Les Retraites, has made four appointments to its independent manager selection committee tasked with reviewing all mandate bids by funds managers.

The members of the committee are Nathalie Boullefort-Fulconis, formerly deputy chief executive of Axa Investment Managers in Paris, Thierry Coste, former chief executive of Societe de Financement de l’Economie Francaise and former head of asset management for Credit Agricole, Jean-Francois Marie and Marcel Nicolai.

The committee is chaired by Antoine de Salins, a member of the fund’s executive board, and its members are appointed for three years.

The committee offers its opinions to the fund’s executive board on all draft specifications for RFPs and also reads and analyses the bids submitted by interested asset managers. It also reviews the report submitted on the performance of mandates awarded.

The fund has 46 funds manager relationships across 15 different asset classes, and is currently reviewing a global government bond RFP.

It returned 15 per cent for the year in 2009 and its long-term asset allocation is 45 per cent equities, 5 per cent real estate, 5 per cent commodities, 25 per cent fixed income, and 20 per cent inflation-linked bonds.