PKA, the €16bn Danish pension fund company, is looking to add to its infrastructure portfolio and is planning to include infrastructure funds specifically focused on emerging markets.

AP 4, the Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund, has once again turned in an unsatisfactory investment performance, with total returns of 1.8 per cent.

More than half of pension funds in Norway, Sweden and Denmark intend to increase their holdings in non-listed real estate over the next five years.

Finnish pension and insurance funds are reversing a 10-year non-domestic investment trend by increasing their allocations to the Finnish market. The surprise findings are part of a Tela report.

The €3.6bn Iceland State Employees’ Pension Fund (Lifeyrissjodur Stafsmanna Rikisins, or LSR) has set itself an ambitious €350m target for alternative asset class exposure.

Iceland’s National Association of Pension Funds would like to see the national regulator move to the prudent man principle for regulating pension funds’ investments.

Norway’s €14bn domestic investment fund is seeking bids for an auditing services provider. The Government Pension Fund – Norway, formerly the National Insurance Scheme, previously retained the state auditing office’s services.

AP 3, the €24.3bn Swedish national pension buffer fund, has made its first commitments to indirect international property. The fund has until now only invested in property through the AP-funds’ co-owned property firm AP Fastigheter.

“In time, our aim is to have the property portfolio equally split between investments in Sweden and abroad. Geographically, we will start in Europe and Asia, and North America will follow,” said Bengt Hellström, head of alternative investments.

Apteekkien Eläkekassa, the €400m Finnish Pharmacy Pension Fund, is to appoint a manager to run almost half of its total assets. The tender is for 40 per cent of the fund’s portfolio, a mandate worth €175m that is equally divided between bonds and equities. SEB Gyllenberg has been the appointed manager for the last three years.

The new SAF-LO agreement, the pension plan for Swedish blue collar workers, has announced which companies will take part in the first part of the manager selection process.

AMF Pension has come out on top while SEB Trygg Liv Nya was ranked 10th in Kaupthing Pension Consulting’s assessment of Swedish life and pension companies.

Ilmarinen, the €23bn Finnish mutual pension insurance company, plans to raise its equity exposure by 2 percentage points each year until 2012, according to Jussi Laitinen, chief investment officer.

More than 60 per cent of Nordic pension funds plan to raise their exposure to private equity in the next six months and 50 per cent expect to allocate more to infrastructure.

Swedish pension fund AP 7 will extend its alpha/beta separation programme from Swedish equities to European equities in the second half of 2007.

The active management approach of AP 1 to 4 has been criticised for being too expensive and not turning in good enough results.

Pension funds should be wary of hedge fund managers when it comes to corporate governance, according to experts.

Tom Rathke, the new managing director at Vital, has taken over responsibility for DnB NOR Asset Management.

The Norwegian ministry of finance is scouring the market for a company to evaluate tax issues for the Government Pension Fund – Global’s impending move into property.

The €8.3bn Danish pension fund PensionDanmark is to increase its exposure to alternatives to 4 per cent of its total assets this year and to 10 per cent by 2012. The fund already invested in two infrastructure funds last year via Goldman Sachs and Energy Capital Partners.

AP 1, the first Swedish national pension fund, is on the hunt for one or more Japanese equity managers. The buffer fund is reconsidering its active approach and is looking for both passive and active managers for the first time. The tender is worth around €914m.

PKA, the €15.5bn administration company for occupational pension funds in Denmark, is increasing its exposure to private equity from 2 per cent to 5 per cent over the next two years.

Danica Pension, the Danish pension insurance company with assets of €32bn, is to site an offshore operation in Ireland before the end of the year.

The €8.3bn Finnish State Pension Fund is to receive a cash injection of almost €1bn from the Finnish government before the end of the year, which it is to use to increase its current 4 per cent exposure to alternatives to 10 per cent over the next two years.

The investment guidelines for Sweden’s national pension funds, the AP funds with assets in excess of SKr807bn (€87.3bn), will be scrutinised by the country’s ministry of finance because of a recent row over activist private equity investments.

Bank Pension, the Dkr11.4bn (€1.52bn) fund that covers Danish employees in the finance sector, is in the process of hiring a Los Angeles based manager to run a European equity mandate worth $10m (€7.8m).

Sweden’s Premium Pension System (PPM) fund range should be cut from 708 funds to just three simple risk-adjusted choices, according to plans proposed by the president of the AP7 state pension fund.

Forca, the administration service recently launched by PKA; Lærernes Pension (LP); and the Early Childhood Teachers (PBU) fund is making plans to offer its services to other Danish pension funds.

VR Pension Fund, the €920m scheme for workers in the Finnish state railways, has reduced its number of external asset managers in a bid to increase efficiency and reduce management overlap.

Finland’s largest mutual pension insurance company logged an impressive year-on-year return growth with a shift towards equities. And with recommendations being accepted to raise the equity component of the fund by 10 per cent, this could well be repeated again. Reeta Cevik reports

Unlike most Danish funds, which operate under minimum guaranteed return conditions, PensionDanmark is free to follow a long-term investment strategy with considerable exposure to equities. Reeta Cevik reports on the underpinnings of the fund’s success