French Reserve Fund Loses CIO

(May 3, 2012)  —  The French reserve pension fund has lost its Chief Investment Officer to a third party asset manager after just two years in the role.

Philippe Aurain, who had been CIO at the Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR) since April 2010 has joined Fédéris Gestion d’Actifs, as CIO and Chief Executive, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Aurain had been at the FRR since 2003 and moved up the investment manager chain to take the top spot two years ago.

The FRR reported that it had assets of €35.1 billion at the end of December, having made a return of 0.37% against a backdrop of Eurozone economic tension.

In November 2010, the FRR underwent huge change as the French government passed a law transferring the entire asset portfolio to Cades, the state’s social debt fund. The FRR became a third-party manager to its own assets and reduced its risk appetite. It agreed to pay €2 billion a year to Cades, and wind down between 2018 and 2024.

Aurain joins a non-profit organisation that is part of a larger French group called Malakoff Médéric, which runs investments for and in health and retirement insurance through mutual funds.

Fédéris Gestion d’Actifs runs €23.5 billion in assets, mainly through equities funds, on behalf of pension and insurance funds and provident societies.

The company has also a heavy slant towards responsible investment, having developed a process to ensure its investments follow this path in 2000.

No one at the FRR or Malakoff Médéric was available for comment this morning.