SWEDEN- Sweden’s third national pension fund AP3 has committed a further e135m to private equity taking its total investment in the asset class to e210m. The latest commitment by the fund is almost split half and half between US and European private equity houses.

For US funds, AP3 has committed the equivalent of e10m to Vision Capital, e20.2m to PETP III and e35.5m to Warburg Pincus. Closer to home it has committed to the equivalent of e20m to EQT Scandinavia and e14.8m to Bure. In the UK it has pledged e10.7m to Legal General Venture and in Europe it has allocated e25m to the Candover 2001 fund.

Last Summer the fund announced it was allocating 5% of the fund’s assets to private equity over the next four years. It has so far invested e210m, or a just under a third of its intended total for private equity. A spokeswoman at the fund says it has doubled its investments in the asset class over the last six months.

At the same time last year it announced it was considering allocating 5% of its assets to hedge funds. However, the fund has yet to make any further commitment to hedge funds and it says it will have a clearer stance next year.

AP3 announced the commitments in its half annual report on the fund’s progress in the six months to June. It announced that its assets have dropped 7.4% over the period due to the drop in equity markets.

At the end of June, the fund reported a market value of SEK 126.6bn, including a net capital inflow of SEK 4.1bn, compared with SEK 132.7bn at the beginning of 2002. It managed, however, to beat its benchmark by 30 basis points or the equivalent of SEK 300 million


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