Sweden’s first national pension fund, AP1, has put out a tender to find investment managers to run three high-yield bond strategies in an exercise aimed at broadening its universe of the asset class geographically.

AP1, which managed SEK298bn (€30.4bn) in assets at the end of June, asked managers for expressions of interest to take on mandates for global high yield, US high yield and European high yield.

It said its allocation to high-yield bonds was approximately 4% of its total assets under management as of 30 June, with this exposure mainly in US high yield.

“The objective of this search is to broaden the universe to global high yield,” AP1 said in the tender notice.

Strategies that were similar to the three requested might be considered, the fund said.

In the notice, AP1 said it had a sustainability policy that applied to the whole fund, including externally managed mandates.

“In the evaluation process, special attention will be paid to how the manager considers and integrates ESG factors in the investment process,” it said.

Managers – apart from being able to document experience in management of institutional accounts for the specified mandate, and show a live GIPS-compliant (global investment performance standards) track record for the product of at least 12 months – must also reserve capacity in the submitted strategy of at least $300m (€287m), AP1 said.

AP1 said it would publish questions from the managers and answers regarding the procurement on its website on 18 January.

The last day to submit RFPs is 31 January 2017.

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