SWEDEN - Fjärde AP-fonden (AP4), the fourth Swedish national pension fund, has split its passive global equity mandate between three managers.

The SEK200bn (€21bn) pension buffer fund has awarded the mandate, previously estimated to be worth around €3bn, to BlackRock Asset Management, Barclays Global Investors (BGI) and State Street Global Advisors.

According to the award notice, the three managers were picked from a total of 10 submissions, and will be expected to each manage a global equity index portfolio benchmarked against regional sub-indices of MSCI World.

AP4 issued the tender for a passive global equities manager in February, for a mandate valued at around €3bn, although it highlighted that this was just a starting figure for the portfolio. (See earlier IPE article: AP4 seeks 'standard' framework for passive global equities)

It claimed the search for new managers was part of an initiative to standardise the framework for its exposure to the asset class as it is currently managed in a variety of ways, including the use of both internal and discretionary management.

As of the end of December 2007, AP4 had 41% allocated to global equities, with 36.9% in fixed income, 18.8% in Swedish equities, with 2.4% in real estate and a further 1% in private equity.

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