International group Kvaerner's Nkr1bn($143m) pensions scheme is to invest more globally.

Pension fund manager Georg Ovesen in Oslo said a meeting to review investment management arrangements has recently been held. The outcome is to invest more in future in international equities on the global market. Currently some 90% of the the fund is invested in Norway and the rest of Scandinavia, with only 10% globally.

Kvaerner's UK £1.1bn pension fund has just appointed Midland Securities Services as a global custodian; previously custody was handled by the investment managers. The Norwegian pension fund is not likely to follow suit, as ithandles custody in-house. Oversen says: "We do our own global custody without external assistance, because we have some very clever people who are doing just fine, so we don't need an independent custodian as they do in the UK.""