The SEK14bn (e1.55bn) national PPM default fund Sjunde AP-fonden (AP7) has finalised its external investment manager line-up by appointing Goldman Sachs Asset Management to a e100m active European equity mandate and Carlson Investment Management to a SEK800m active Swedish equity brief.
Due to current market conditions, the average PPM fund is worth 85% of its initial value but AP7 has done slightly better than the Swedish average, losing 13% of its value to fall from SEK15.9bn to SEK13.8bn.
However, the fund has received around SEK6bn through the national PPM system, as contributions for 1999 were paid in April.
The majority of AP7’s Swedish investments are managed in-house, with a quarter outsourced to State Street and a small part actively managed by Carlson.
AP7 has decided to go for a purely active approach in Japan and the Far East, while maintaining a fully passive approach in the US. In Europe the fund has split its portfolio in two, with one half passively managed by State Street and the other split in two active briefs.
Nomura Asset Management UK has been given a SEK1.1bn Japanese equity mandate and Schroders manages a SEK400m Far East brief. The fund’s US portfolio is handled by State Street.
Together with Goldman Sachs, the Paris-based CDC IXIS Asset Management has already been chosen to manage a SEK1bn European active core mandate. Schroders manages a SEK400m Far Eastern mandate.
l In Italy, Cooperlavoro, the L20bn (e10m) closed-end pension fund for employees of co-operative companies, has appointed three managers to run assets for its 300,000 members.
The managers, Mediolanum State Street, Sanpaolo IMI Institutional Asset Managers and Unipol Assicurazioni, are set to receive a third of the fund’s assets each. Italian pension fund supervisor, COVIP, has yet to authorise the mandates, but is likely to do so by the end of May.
Mediolanum State Street, the joint enterprise between the Italian insurer and State Street has also been appointed to mandates from Previambiente, the pension fund for workers in the environmental sector, and Fondartigiani, the pension fund for artisans and craft workers. Detailed figures for the deals have yet to be announced, but the funds are believed to be appointing a number of other money managers also.
In a separate move, Fondo Famiglia, the potentially huge pension fund launched by an Italian housewives’ organisation, is currently choosing a fund administrator and custodian. The deadline for submissions has ended already.
The closed-end fund, designed for housewives, part-timers and freelancers and promoted by the union DonnEuropee Federdcasalinghe, will also start searching for money managers later this spring.
“Federcasalinghe has 800,000 members, and they expect to have a lot of participants in the fund, but with a small amount of money each. It is very difficult to say at this stage how the fund will develop,” says Claudio Pina, partner at Rome-based Adelaide Consulting.
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