SWEDEN - Andra AP-fonden, the Second Swedish National Pension Fund or AP2, is making a 76 million-euro investment into a fund managed by Sustainable Asset Management.

"SAM has shown that traditional financial analysis in conjunction with a financially focused assessment of other non-financial business aspects can provide interesting return opportunities," AP2's chief investment officer Petter Odhnoff was quoted as saying in SAM release.

"Our investment is also aimed at gaining access to SAM's expertise within this area."

AP2 said SAM "employs a systematic analytical process to determine the financial impact of ethical and environmental criteria on sustainability".

"With this investment in the SAM Sustainable European Equity Fund, AP2 gains access to SAM's analytical resources, enabling the Swedish pension fund to continue a systematic integration of ethical and environmental goals as part of the asset management process."

"The majority of SAM's growth in assets under management this year and in 2003 comes from mainstream investors whose primary interest is on investment returns," said Eric Gelfgren, SAM's Nordic representative. "We are convinced that companies that actively seek to satisfy all their stakeholders achieve greater success over time.

AP2's investment means Zurich-based SAM has raised 117 million euros to date in 2004 from Nordic investors.