Pioneer Investments has won an Asian equity mandate from a Mexican pension scheme in what is a further sign of how Mexico’s pension funds are globalising their investments.
Afore XXI Banorte, part of Mexico’s ‘afore’ pensions fund system, is investing $150 million (€141 million) in the mandate, which Pioneer will run out of London.
The win is a boon for Pioneer, which began managing Asian equities in 2008, and for Amundi, the French asset manager in the process of buying the firm from its Italian owner, Unicredit.
Schroders and BNP Paribas Investment Partners are European firms that have also won mandates from Mexican pension schemes since the local regulator allowed the afores to appoint third-party managers in 2011. Pioneer also previously won a mandate from Afore Banamex.
Juan Manuel Valle, CEO for Afore XXI Banorte, said: “The assignment of this mandate aims at optimising our affiliates’ investments, which is evidence of the great progress undertaken by the savings for retirement industry in Mexico.”
As well as “taking advantage of international managers’ expertise”, the fund is also using transition management and custody services from State Street.
Gustavo Lozano, country head of Pioneer Investments Mexico, said Mexican institutional clients were engaged with relationships that were not only about investment services, but about “knowledge transfer services, which add value to the business proposition”.
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