SWEDEN - The 16.6 billion-euro Third Swedish National Pension Fund, Tredje AP-fonden or AP3, has awarded three European mid-cap mandates totalling more than four billion crowns (439 million euros).

BNP Paribas Asset Management BNP PAM, AXA Rosenberg Investment Management and Kempen Capital Management have been selected following the restructuring of its equity portfolio, which has led to the selection of FTSE Developed Europe Mid-Cap Index.

BNP Paribas has been awarded a 1.2 billion-crown (132 million-euros) mandate, AXA Rosenberg 2.1 billion crowns and Kempen 881 million crowns.

“We have a pool of managers which have un-funded stand-by mandates,” said Pernilla Klein, communications manager at AP3. BNP Paribas had been in the pool since September 2003, she said.

AP3 allocates 84.9 billion crowns to equities, 59.7 billion to fixed income and 7.3 billion to real estate.

“This success pays off the professionalism of the European equities group at BNP Paribas,” said the asset manager in a statement.

“This achievement emphasises the quality of our research process and management of BNP PAM, its capacity to measure and control risk, the quality of its performance and the services of the teams dedicated to institutional clients,” said Frank Goasguen, responsible for the commercial institutional development at BNP PAM.

BNP Paribas also said that it had 195,6 billion assets under management as of end of June.

Simon Vanstone, head of European marketing at AXA Rosenberg declined to comment, while Kempen was not available for comment.

AP3 recently chose an investment management system provided by Trema Group.