Mexican pension fund manager Afore XXI Banorte awarded Pioneer Investments, Investec Asset Management, JP Morgan Asset Management and BlackRock, with close to 850 million dollars to invest in an Asian Equity Mandate. To date, Afore XXI Banorte has funded one previous mandate on European Equity Market and this is the second project that they are awarding, continuing the pension funds’ diversification to international markets through active management.
The Asian Equity mandate follows an innovative pan Asiatic approach that includes Japan. This allows the investors to benefit from emerging Asia potential, while investing in developed market high quality companies based in Japan and Australia.
Juan Manuel Valle, CEO for Afore XXI Banorte, remarked: “The assignment of this mandate aims at optimizing our affiliates’ investments, which is evidence of the great progress undertaken by the savings for retirement industry in Mexico. This puts Afore XXI Banorte on the cutting edge when it comes to investment management and reinforces our position through participation in complex markets like Asian equities, taking advantage of international managers’ expertise, in addition to using transition management services and the international custodian model offered by the State Street Bank and Trust Company platform. The latter with the objective of enhancing the return of our affiliates’ portfolios in the long term”.
Sergio Mendez, CIO for Afore XXI Banorte noted: “With the funding of the Asian equity mandate, Afore XXI Banorte confirms its commitment to grant its affiliates access to the best investment vehicles, in order to achieve better returns to their investment”.
Gustavo Lozano, Country Head of Pioneer Investments Mexico, stated: ‘Funding of this mandate in just four months after being appointed managers signals that the regulatory changes, along with our previous experience onboarding Mexican Pension Funds’ projects, shortens implementation times of mandates in Mexico and this will be in itself an asset class catalyst. Pioneer Investments manages and on-boards these projects from London bringing diversification to pensioners and engaging Mexican Institutional clients with comprehensive relationships where we are not only providing investment services, but complement this with Knowledge Transfer Services, which add value to the business proposition.”
Pioneer Investments received 150 million dollars which will be actively managed by the specialist Asian Equities investment team at Pioneer Investments’ London Investment Center. BlackRock, got 200 that will be managed by Andrew Swan. JP Morgan Asset Management got 280 million and Investec Asset Management received 220 million dollars.
