SWEDEN - The SEK201bn AP4 scheme, the fourth Swedish national pension fund, has seen its capital value rise by SEK13.7bn (€1.6bn) to SEK214.2bn in the first six months of the year.

Presenting its half year results yesterday, the fund said it had made a total return of 6.4% in the months from January to the end of June.

The fund's 1% allocation to private equity returned 34.5%, while Swedish equities (18.9% of total assets) returned 14.7% and global equity (41.2% of assets) yielded 7.2%.

AP4 is the next in the row of Swedish buffer funds which have benefited from good returns on both listed and private equity in the first half year of 2007.

Mats Anderson, who took over chief executive at AP4 at the beginning of this year, commented to IPE he is satisfied with the good results, though expect returns to be hit by the recent market turbulence.

"Everyone who owns equities or is involved in fixed income management will suffer one way or the other," he said.

Anderson declined to comment whether the fund will tender for any mandates in the near future, though added AP4 is currently going through an internal review.

In June, the scheme tendered for the management of €1.5bn in Japanese and Pacific equities, but no appointments have been made so far.