SWEDEN – Occupational pension fund manager Alecta has hired Nordea’s Peter van Berlekom as its new head of equities.

Alecta, Sweden's largest mutual pension company, said in a statement that van Berlekom would succeed Staffan Rasjö, who is starting his own business.

Van Berlekom joins Alecta on January 1 from Nordea Investment Management where he headed its Stockholm team managing Swedish and European equities.

Nordea said he would be replaced by Johan Stein, who joined in 2001. Before that he was Associate Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics.

“We are very pleased at having recruited Peter van Berlekom as our new head of equities,” said Staffan Grefbäck, head of Alecta Investment Management. “Peter is knowledgeable and experienced in managing equities and he has a good track record.” He added that Rasjö was an enthusiastic leader of Alecta's equities team.

Alecta manages more than 35 billion dollars in assets, of which about 11 billion dollars are in equities.

In August Alecta posted a five percent return on investments in the first half. And it said its post-tax profit was 11.5 billion crowns, against a 29 billion-crown loss a year before.

Alecta, formerly known as Sveriges Privatanstalldas Pensionskassa, or SPP, is the largest occupational pension company in the Nordic region. Its core business is the ITP occupational pension.