SWEDEN - The roughly SEK180.2bn (€19.2bn) Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund (AP4) has named Skandia Life chief investment officer Mats Andersson as its new managing director to succeed current MD Thomas Halvorsen, who is due to retire.

Halvorsen has been at AP4 for 23 years and MD for 13 years. He is due to retire by year-end, an AP4 spokesperson told IPE.

“We haven’t decided yet [when Halvorsen is going to_retire]. It depends on when Mats can leave Skandia that we can make the transition,” he said.

The fund said there was likely to be a handover period between Halvorsen and Andersson. However, the spokesperson added: “It’s up to them really to decide how long a period they need and when.”

Before joining Skandia Life, Andersson, 52, was an equity portfolio manager of the roughly SEK175 Third Swedish National Pension Fund (AP3). He also held senior positions at Deutsche Bank, S.G. Warburg and Hägglöf & Ponsbach.

He was also an editor on the business newspaper, ‘Affärsvärlden’ (Business World) – “no disadvantage”, according to a spokesperson for the fund.

In his current position, Andersson is responsible for managing some SEK270bn.

In December 2005, AP4 terminated the role of chief investment officer following a restructuring of the scheme’s executive management committee. The move followed the departure of CIO Björn Linder, who quit to join the investment team of ferry line and shipping giant Stena Sphere.

AP4 president Thomas Halvorsen took over the reins of daily business matters. Meanwhile, the remainder of the responsibilities were split between fixed income and currencies chief Leif Hässel and equities head Anders Årges.

In June, IPE reported that AP4 had come under fire for underperforming its sister AP buffer funds in a review carried out by the Swedish Ministry of Finance.

According to the review, AP4 achieved an average net return of 3.5% during the period 2001 to 2005. Meanwhile, AP1 achieved 4.3%, AP2 achieved 4.9% and AP3 attained 5%.


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