Finland's Varma-Sampo Group to Target $1 Billion at Alternatives
“It’s really the classic model for institutions that you are seeing take shape all across Europe,”said Charles Bathurst of Indocam Asset Management. “They are looking at 3% for private equity and 2% for hedge funds.”
A 5% allocation to alternatives would come it at just under $1 billion. The initial target for hedge funds would weigh in at roughly $350 million and would likely be achieved over time.
The Sampo-Varma Group is made up of individual and group life, industrial and pension- insurance companies. The Group’s publicly traded parent company, Sampo Insurance Company plc is listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
In addition to Finland, the firm maintains regional credit-insurance and industrial-insurance offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Baltic States and Russia.
The Finnish giant has grown through a series of recent acquisitions and mergers. The Sampo-Varma Group name comprises a number of businesses that were formerly known as the Sampo Group, Kaleva Mutual Insurance Company, and Varma-Sampo Mutual Pension Insurance Company.
More recently, the group has moved to unify its asset-management and fund-management operations. The firm announced Wednesday that its asset-management and fund-management divisions of Sampo and Leonia will combine their businesses as part of the formation of the new Sampo-Leonia Group.
A merger of Sampo Insurance Co. plc, Finland’s leading insurance group, and Leonia plc was announced in late 1999 and is expected to be finalized Dec. 31.
A report prepared by the company in August showed that subsidiary Sampo-Leonia managed about $3.5 billion in third-party discretionary assets. About 30% of those assets came from pension funds and foundations. Other capital managed by the group stems from mutual funds and corporate pension funds.
By Pete Gallo, Editor
Source: www.HedgeWorld.com
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