FRANCE – Af2i promotes institutional interest in pe

Fay
22 March 2006

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Jean-Philppe Richaud of Macif and Jean-Yves Mary of Caisse Nationale des Caisses d’Epargne have co-piloted an incentive to promote institutional awareness towards private equity within the Af2i (association française des investisseurs institutionnels). Last year they set up a working group aimed at giving French institutions a chance to debate issues surrounding private equity investments. Its 12 members represent a variety of French institutional investors intent on providing a functional guide to the asset class, as well as lobbying for the best institutional approaches towards private equity.

Its findings are set to be published on 18 May 2006. Richaud explains: ‘Many French institutions would like to invest in private equity, but they lack the basic know-how. The Af2i guide will give them all the necessary information to determine allocations, measure the pre-investment work and perform further investments. This way, institutional investors will be better positioned to ask for improved conditions in GP funds.’

Jean-Philppe Richaud was appointed head of French insurance group Macif’s private equity division in 2005 in a drive to adopt a more coherent strategy to unquoted investments. ‘Previously we only invested an average of EUR 10m a year, on a far more opportunistic basis,’ comments Richaud. ‘The positive cash flow generated from the programme we launched in 1996 has played a key role in the increase of global allocation to private equity, as it illustrated the natural liquidity and over performance of the asset class.’