Welcome to the tenth edition of Nordic Region Pensions & Investment News, Financial Times Business’dedicated publication for the pensions and investment industries in the Nordic countries.

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.

Ilmarinen, the E23bn Finnish mutual pension insurance company, is considering increasing its exposure to hedge funds this year.

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.

The outcome of the manager selection process for the new Swedish ITP scheme – the pension plan for Swedish white-collar employees – has been slammed by Söderberg and Partners, one of two consultants to advise on the tendering process, for offering too little investment choice and falsifying costs.

Finansinspektionen (FI), the Swedish financial supervisory authority, has launched a new version of the traffic-light model to include insurance risks – a move that could impact on company calculations of the life expectancy.

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.

Neptune, the specialist UK equities manager, has picked up three multi-manager mandates in the Nordic region and is in talks to announce further mandate wins in the region.

Sampension, the €12bn Danish pension fund management company, has poached Henrik Olejasz Larsen from ATP, the Danish labour market pension fund, to become its new chief investment officer. Mr Larsen was previously chief risk officer at ATP.

Denmark has yet to change its tax legislation to avoid discriminating against life companies based outside the country, despite a recent European court ruling.

The Swedish national pension buffer funds (AP 1, AP 2, AP 3 and AP 4), which have formed an ethics council to assess the ethics of the non-Swedish companies they invest in, expect to increase the standards of up to 50 per cent of the companies they engage with over the next 12 months. GES Investment Services has been appointed to carry out the screening work.

The long-awaited scheme for white-collar workers, ITP, is finally on the verge of launching. However, though the tenders have been awarded, many local players already have concerns about how the system will perform. Caroline Liinanki reports.

Norway’s Government Pension Fund - Global may be looking to secure a sound return based on moderate risk, but keeping an eye on the ethical practices of the firms in which it invests is a key consideration as it grows. James Hydzik speaks to Martin Skancke of the Norwegian Ministry of Finance about this policy.

The new Finnish pension investment regulations, which came into force in January, have prompted local pension institutions to expand their equity holdings, take new alternative asset classes on board and invest more outside the eurozone. The changes have also started a push towards foreign property funds.

Once again, fixed income investing is to be sacrificed in favour of increased equity allocations, despite the recent stock market slump and consequent worries about risk. Chris Newlands reports.

Danica Traditional’s 2006 performance was disappointing after a buoyant 2005, but the fund’s chief investment officer says its problems are over. Reeta Cevik finds out how the firm’s risk management, diversification and foreign expansion have helped.

All but one of the Nordic region’s biggest pension funds saw returns fall last year, and worst-hit Denmark is blaming poor bond performance and reliance on derivatives. Reeta Cevik hears how investors are planning to dig themselves out of the unexpected downturn.

nrpn spoke to four Swedish consultants about the issues facing their clients, and the question of whether there are too many players in the market.

The International Accounting Standards Board has embarked on a review of its pensions accounting standard, IAS 19, targeting the protocol’s tolerance of smoothing. Stephen Bouvier examines the project plan and its implications.

Investors are moving away from the bond versus equity debate and searching for more innovative solutions to attain higher returns. Pirkko Juntunen finds out how each of the Nordic countries are opening up to new investment ideas.

In this environment of liability-driven investment and aggressive pursuit of returns, many wonder how index providers can keep pace. With some doomsayers predicting the end of such traditional structures, others have responded by claiming that it will take more than passing investment fashions to break down the benchmarks. Thomas Escritt reports.

Nick Phillips and Andrew Alford discuss the benefits of GSAM’s newly launched Europe, US, and Japan Flex funds and how these offer an extra gear to equity investing.

Anthony Biddulph, director institutional sales for the Nordic countries at BlackRock, clarifies the definition of enhanced indexation and outlines the benefits of this type of investment strategy.

All the t-charter needs is legal scrutiny and the rubber stamp from the Financial Services Authority. Iain Morse finds how this ‘final’ version is part of a welcome transparency trend in service provision.