Commodities are in the spotlight in this, our seventh edition of Nordic Region Pensions & Investments News. Our cover feature (page 25) shows that the asset class, which has seen exponential growth over the last two years, went into meltdown in May with three-month copper and aluminium shedding 9 and 6 per cent in just one day.

Råvarer er i søgelyset i denne syvende udgave af Nordic Region Pensions & Investments News. Vores forsideartikel (side 25) viser, at denne aktivklasse, der har gennemgået eksponentiel vækst i løbet af de sidste to år, styrtdykkede i sidste måned (maj), hvor 3-måneders futures på kobber og aluminium faldt med 9 og 6 procent på en enkelt dag.

Raaka-ainesijoitukset ovat Nordic Region Pensions & Investments News –lehden seitsemännen numeron huomion kohteena.

Handelsvarer er i søkelyset i denne syvende utgaven av Nordic Region Pensions & Investments News. Vår omslagsartikkel (side 25) viser at aktivaklassen, som har opplevd eksepsjonell vekst de siste to årene, hadde nedsmelting i forrige måned (mai) hvor tre måneders kopper og aluminium gikk ned henholdsvis 9 og 6 prosent på bare én dag.

Råvaror är i fokus i denna sjunde utgåva av Nordic Region Pensions & Investments News. I vår huvudartikel (sid. 25) beskrivs hur denna tillgångsklass, som har växt exponentiellt under de senaste två åren, rasade under maj månad när koppar- och aluminiumterminspriserna per kvartal föll med 9 % respektive 6 % på en enda dag.

Finansinspektionen (FI), the Swedish financial supervisory authority, has not ruled out naming and shaming those life and pension funds that trigger a red light situation under its recently launched traffic light supervisory system.

The Swedish operation of Storebrand Life has appointed Anders Bäckström as its temporary managing director. Mr Bäckström joined Storebrand in November 2005 from Danica Fondförsäkring, where he was market director since 1999. He was also one of the founders of the firm.

Kaupthing Asset Management in Finland has appointed Ari Korhonen as its new director. Mr Korhonen joins the firm on 1 August from the €5.58bn Etera Mutual Pension Insurance company.

Pension Fennia, the €5.3bn Finnish mutual pension insurance company, is expanding its alternatives portfolio from 5 per cent to 20 per cent of all holdings over the next five years.

Nordic pension and insurance funds plan to increase their exposure to equities despite current equity market falls, according to nrpn’s latest quarterly investor survey.

Ilmarinen, the €21bn Finnish mutual pension insurance company, is increasing its exposure to foreign property from 5 per cent to 25 per cent of the property portfolio over the coming four years. Jussi Laitinen, CIO of the fund, told nrpn that Ilmarinen had decided to expand its foreign property holdings in order to further diversify its portfolio.

The European Court of Justice has published an initial opinion on a case the European Commission (EC) brought against Denmark for infringing a number of EC Treaty articles that refer to the principles of the single market.

Keva, the €20bn Finnish Local Government Pension Fund, has decided to change its investment strategy radically in the next three years. The new strategy includes increasing exposure to equities, alternatives and property. The fund will also make its first foray into commodities, reduce its exposure to fixed income and increase its equity exposure from 45 to 50 per cent.

KLP, the NKr159.1bn (€20.49bn) Norwegian public sector pension insurance company, has appointed Sverre Thornes as executive vice president and head of pensions and life insurance. Mr Thornes joined KLP’s fixed income team in 1995. He was appointed as the chief executive officer of the firm’s asset management subsidiary in January 2002.

ATP, the €49bn Danish labour market supplementary pension scheme, has withdrawn plans to offer Folkebørsen, the electronic pension savings platform, as an investment option to Danish pension funds.

• AP Pension, the €3.62bn (DKr27bn) Danish fund, has appointed Hans Boye Clausen as managing director. Mr Boye Clausen, currently deputy managing director, replaces Holger Dock who will retire in December. Mr Boye Clausen joined AP Pension in 1975. In 1980 he moved to Tryg Pension but returned to AP four years later. Søren Dal Thomsen, who joins the firm from Sampension, is expected to take up the duties of Mr Boye Clausen.

The Local Government Pension Fund hatches a three-year plan to seek higher returns from alternative assets, property and to enter the commodities market, while looking for higher risk in its bond portfolio, writes Reeta Cevik

The Swedish government has published its annual evaluation of the country’s €80.1bn AP funds, in which AP4’s decision making and use of internal management process has been singled out for criticism.

• AP1 – Owing to a good result in 2005, the long-term prerequisites for the fund to reach the targets of its board have improved. Above all this applies to the coming year. The existing long-term results have been judged to be only slightly positive after costs.

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global has excluded the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart and mining company Freeport from its investments following recommendations from the fund’s council on ethics.

While many outside observers have made gloomy assessments of Iceland’s economy, local investors have benefitted from the krona’s fall. Stephen Bouvier reports

Chris Newlands digests the results of the latest nrpn quarterly survey and finds a shift in favour of equities despite the recent black period, a lack of interest in fixed income and realistic oil price expectations

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

Reeta Cevik speaks to Tom Rathke, CFO of Vital, on the pension company’s four principles of investment, which include risk taking and a stringent monitoring of managers’ SRI activities

Roundtable: nrpn spoke to four Swedish investors about their current and future concerns

Six heads of investment, including ATP’s Bjarne Graven Larsen, at some of the largest pension schemes across Europe were asked what challenges they foresaw in pension asset management over the next decade, both generally and in relation to their own organisation

The recent market wobble in commodities has not deterred many investors from entering the asset class as they seek the diversification and added-value it offers over the long term. However, some Nordic investors remain unconvinced. Chris Newlands reports

Anthony Biddulph, head of institutional business in the Nordic region for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, investigates how pension funds and other institutional clients can build up a diversified European property portfolio

The new UN Principles for Responsible Investment were given a raucous reception on their publication, as they thrust ethical issues into the mainstream. But, as Christine Senior reports, Nordic countries seem ahead of the game

Europe’s IORP directive has already sparked a mini revolution in pension fund regulation, kick starting projects such as the FTK in the Netherlands and the traffic light solvency regulations. But implementation of the directive remains patchy and has yet to reach the avowed goal of its architects – a true pan-European pension fund. Reeta Cevik looks at varying rates of progress on the directive’s transposition

In a further bid to enhance Mellon Financial Corporation’s competitiveness, the Pittsburgh-headquartered organisation has finalised a review of its asset servicing businesses designed to improve “alignment” and create synergies with their asset management operations.

JPMorgan has broken into the Nordic custody market with the launch of GlobeClear, its clearance and settlement offering for on-exchange trades. The house says that a Nordic broker-dealer has already signed up to the platform via a tri-party arrangement with sub-custodian, SEB.