SWEDEN – The Swedish pension scheme of Nordic telecoms firm TeliaSonera has shifted $140m (€108.7m) of assets into a socially responsible investing screened fund from State Street Global Advisors.

SSGA said the Stockholm-based €1.5bn defined benefit Telia Pensionsstiftelse will invest the cash in a new passive global equity fund called the Global Equity SRI Fund.

“We have transferred our investments in the Balzac World index fund, run by State Street, to this new SRI screened fund,” scheme president Peter Antonsson told IPE.

“We selected State Street Global Advisors because of its industry-wide reputation for managing sophisticated portfolios for large pension funds, and for its clear leadership in passive equity strategies,” he said.

“We look forward to incorporating its expertise to help us align our values with the investment goals of our pension fund.”

“We are pleased to have Telia in our growing customer base in the Nordic region, and it’s encouraging to note the level of interest that our socially responsible investments have garnered from our clients,” said Benoît Fally, managing director of SSGA in Brussels.

As at the end of last year TeliaSonera had total pension obligations of SEK18bn – with plan assets worth SEK15.8bn.

Total asset allocation was 56% fixed income and 44% equities and other investments, according to the group’s latest annual report. The expected return on plan assets is around 5.7% a year.

The asset allocation at the Swedish fund, which represents around 85% of plan assets, was 60% fixed income, 30 equities and 10% other.

According to the report, the firm made a SEK1.1bn pension fund contribution in 2004.

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