The Swedish Fund Selection Agency (Fondtorgsnämnden, FTN) is extending the deadline for bids in its first tender for the second time, citing clarifications made in response to the questions from asset managers – which have continued to flood in.

The agency announced yesterday that the new deadline for submission of tenders in the SEK11bn (€926m) procurement for large/mid-cap actively-managed European equity funds is now 5 October – a week later than the date it set on 8 September, and three weeks later than the original deadline set when the tender was launched on 30 June.

The FTN said that “due to certain clarifications”, the tender period was being extended, with the new last day to ask questions about the procurement 24 September, and the new last day for publishing answers to questions set at 29 September.

The rolling question-and-answer window on the FTN’s page on the e-avrop tendering website currently shows 287 pages – with one question and answer, or one notification from the agency generally occupying a single page.

Two official clarifications were published in this Q&A stream yesterday – one deleting references to “master funds” in the English version of the fund agreement, which did not appear in the Swedish version, and the second adjusting the procurement specification regarding the investment universe to include more named indices than just the MSCI Europe IMI and equivalent indices.

“This clarifies that no restriction of the principle of equal treatment is intended or can exist and no general obstacle arises, as a result of the extent of the investment universe, in the fund’s ability to participate in e.g. IPOs,” the FTN said in the notification.

One recent question and answer published suggests frustration with the growing volumes of material regarding the tender, with an unnamed bidder asking the FTN to rearrange the Q&As sequentially.

“It is very difficult to find an answer reference number,” the question read. “Can you at least hyperlink the answer? They are not in number order so it is time consuming trying to find the right reference.”

The agency replied that it could neither adjust the order nor provide hyperlinks, referring instead to e-avrop’s tech support email.

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Rachel is IPE's Nordic correspondent. She has long been a freelance writer, and over the years, has written for The Telegraph, The Independent, The Observer, AMWatch and elsewhere. In 2001, Rachel's personal finance book Kickstart Your Money was published by John Wiley & Sons.View full Profile

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