SWEDEN – Andra AP-fonden, the Second National Swedish Pension Fund, has raised its stake slightly in insurance group Skandia.

The SEK173bn (€18.5bn) AP2 – which last week reported an 8.4% return on investments in the first half of the year – now has some 32m shares in Skandia, giving it a 3.2% stake. That’s up from 29.9m shares and a 2.9% stake at the end of 2004.

Skandia saw its result for the first-half slip to a loss of SKE1bn – from a positive SEK1.3bn a year before.

Revenues rose 15% to SEK7.8bn from SEK6.8bn. Funds under management grew by 17% to SEK481bn.

Last week Skandia Liv awarded a €500m passive international equities mandate to Northern Trust Global Investments.

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