SWEDEN - Martin Currie, Nomura and Marathon have been placed under review as the largest Swedish buffer fund, the SEK188bn (€20.4bn) Första AP-fonden (AP1), reviews its Japanese equity strategy.

The three investment managers are currently sharing management for the fund's SEK8.5bn (€1bn) Japanese equities mandate with Marathon holding a slightly smaller mandate (SEK 2.5bn) than the other two.

AP1 will use the review to consider changing its all active approach within the portfolio. Nadine Viel Lamare, spokeswoman for AP1 confirmed to IPE that the fund will be looking at active and passive/enhanced managers but said that no decision on a change had been made yet.

The tender is part of a regular review of managers, Viel Lamare said. "We had them for four years now and it is time to re-tender the mandates." The incumbent managers will be able to reapply.

The new managers will be benchmarked against the MSCI Japan Total Return index.

Deadline for participation in the tender is March 30. Requests to participate can be drawn up in English or Swedish.