SCANDINAVIA - The Nordic finance group Nordea said its assets under management (AuM) for institutional clients stayed neutral in the second quarter of this year despite losing a number of money market mandates.

A spokesman for the company confirmed today the company lost several fixed income mandates between April and June, though declined to specify further details.

In ian interim report covering the first six months of this year, Nordea says its current institutional AuM at the end of the second quarter stood at €25.7bn - down from €25.9bn at the end of the first quarter.

The entire assets under management of the company are 12% lower than at the end of the second quarter in 2007, and assets decreased to €146bn in the second quarter of 2008 through market depreciation, even though there was positive net inflow of €500m.

The spokesman was keen to stress despite the loss of fixed income mandates, the company has won "several important mandates in both the Nordic and international business during the second quarter along with increased inflows form existing customers".

Nordea Life and Pensions, the company's private and corporate pensions offering targeting the Nordic countries, Poland, Luxembourg and Isle of Man, saw a negative return of -0.4% because of the equity market downturn.

That said, the spokesman added the company has ample financial buffers to make up for the negative return.

Overall, the firm's Polish and Danish operations had the strongest results, with premiums  up 120% in Poland and 48% in Denmark.

The spokesman said no further expansion is planned at present into the Central and Eastern European market following Nordea's latest push into Estonia, though hinted the company might next look at Russia. (See earlier story IPE.com: ‘Nordea to launch Estonian pensions business')

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