- 2008 was an extremely turbulent year characterized by dramatic price falls and poorly functioning financial markets.
- For 2008 the Fund posted a net investment loss of SEK 48.0 billion, equal to a total return of -21.9 percent after expenses. This negative value growth in the Fund’s portfolio reflects the impact of the global financial crisis and above all developments in the international equity markets.
- The Fund’s active foreign exchange management, fixed income management and external management all outperformed their indices. Despite this, the Fund’s overall active management returned a negative -0.69 percentage points. However, over the past five years active management has contributed an average of 0.3 percentage points annually, equal to total investment income of SEK 3 billion.
- At year-end 2008 Första AP-fonden had net assets under management of SEK 171.6 billion, a decrease of SEK 47.2 billion during the year.
Fund asset exposure to different regions at 31 December 2008
SEK return by asset class in 2008 %
Active return
| Contibution from: | Per unit¹ | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Global macro allocation | -0.25 |
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| Tactical asset allocation | -0.26 |
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| Intern equity management, Sweden | -1.30 |
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| Intern equity management, Europe | -0.62 |
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| Internal fixed income management | 0.35 |
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| Foreign exchange and treasury | 0.18 |
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| Total internal management |
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-0.66 |
| External management | 0.36 |
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| Total internal and external management |
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-0.52 |
| Securities lending |
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-0.10 |
| Other |
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-0.07 |
| Total active return |
|
-0.69 |
Five-year overview
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2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Closing net assets, SEK bn | 171.6 | 218.8 | 207.1 | 187.3 | 156.8 |
| Net inflow, SEK bn | 0.8 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 2.9 | 1.6 |
| Net investment income, SEK bn | -48.0 | 9.7 | 18.2 | 27.6 | 15.9 |
| Total return before expenses, % | -21.7 | 4.8 | 9.8 | 17.5 | 11.4 |
| Active return before expenses¹, % | -0.7 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 0.0 |
| Expense ratio, total, % | 0.16 | 0.15 | 0.15 | 0.15 | 0.17 |
| Expense ratio excl. commission costs, % | 0.09 | 0.08 | 0.08 | 0.08 | 0.09 |
| Active risk, realized, % | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| Currency exposure, % | 22.2 | 19.2 | 16.2 | 20.5 | 20.9 |
| Share of active management², % | 97.4 | 97.5 | 98.0 | 94.8 | 77.4 |
| Share of external management, % | 39.6 | 36.0 | 34.2 | 37.7 | 24.0 |
| For definitions, see glossary. |
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² Including enhanced mandates.
Asset classes
| Equities | Description | % of strategic benchmark, 2008 | % return, 2004–2008 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North America, Europe, Pacific | Europe: Internal management, active mandate with a focus on large caps. North America: External management, two mandates. Small caps, active mandate; large caps, enhanced and active mandates. Pacific: External management, active mandates. |
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| 2 | Sweden | Internal management, active mandate. Focus on large and mid caps. |
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| 3 | Emerging markets | External management, passive mandate through June 2006. Since that time, one passive and several active mandates. |
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| Fixed income |
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| 4 | Nominal Swedish | Internal management, active mandate |
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| 5 | Nominal non-Swedish | Internal management, active mandate for all non-Swedish fixed income except US and European credit bonds. These are managed externally; US credit bonds, enhanced mandate and European credit bonds, active mandate since 2008. |
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| 6 | Index-linked fixed income | Internal management, active mandate. |
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| Alternative investments |
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| 7 | Alternative investments | Unlisted holdings in real estate, private equity and hedge funds. |
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| Foreign exchange |
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| 8 | Foreign exchange | In order to reduce volatility in total return over time, the Fund maintains an open currency exposure in the strategic benchmark equal to approximately 20 percent of the market value of net assets. Internal management, active mandate. |
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