SWEDEN - Kammarkollegiet, the fund manager and financial procurement agency to Swedish state-linked organisations, has appointed three global equity managers following a restructuring of its external investment management arrangements.
 
The Swedish agency manages around €12.8bn of assets for semi-public sector organisations and churches, handling Swedish fixed income and equities in house.
 
A tender conducted by investment consultants bfinance for the management of €97m in global equities elicited 90 RFPs, resulting in the appointment of Handelsbanken's global ethical fund for just over 50%, with the remainder split equally between Aberdeen Asset Management and Alfred Berg on an active global equity, long-only basis.
 
The €97m under review was previously invested in seven externally managed, regional and country-specific funds, which Kammarkollegiet wished to streamline to three, with a mandate to invest in global equities in accordance with the agency's SRI criteria of avoiding tobacco and armaments companies.
 
Leif Hässel, chief investment officer at Kammarkollegiet, said:  "It wasn't that easy to handle the currency exposure between the regions, and some of the existing external managers didn't perform very well.
 
"We wanted all the mandates to be benchmarked against the MCSI World index and for the managers to take care of the currency risk, as well as the equity risk."
 
Handelsbanken was chosen on account of its ability to build passive equity portfolios, as well as its low tracking error against benchmark indices.
 
Hässel said Kammarkollegiet liked Aberdeen's investment philosophy and strong performance track record, while Alfred Berg displayed similar characteristics, but by employing a more quantitative style that adds diversification to the agency's roster of fund managers.
 
Richard Tyszkiewicz, senior director of business development at bfinance, said: "Handelsbanken ticked all the boxes and is also a local Swedish provider. For the active managers, we were looking for particularly active managers, with slightly different investment styles."
 

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