The Swedish Fund Selection Agency (FTN) has launched two procurement processes for actively managed healthcare and biotechnology funds on the country's premium pension fund platform, covering SEK 31.9bn in assets.

The procurements will cover funds investing in large-cap and mid-cap companies, with the agency seeking to select up to five healthcare funds and two biotech funds.

There are currently nine actively managed healthcare funds on the premium pension platform, with combined assets of approximately SEK 29.3bn, alongside two actively managed biotech funds managing around SEK 2.6bn.

The two procurement processes are expected to affect approximately 250,000 premium pension savers.

FTN executive director, Erik Fransson, said the funds could provide savers with opportunities to diversify their retirement investments.

"Healthcare and biotech funds are sector funds that can complement broad equity funds in long-term savings," he stated.

"Global equity funds often have significant exposure to certain markets and sectors. With sector funds, savers can diversify their exposure and tailor their pension savings to their desired investment focus and risk level."

The healthcare and biotech procurements will be conducted separately but in parallel, with both categories subject to a range of investment and sustainability requirements.

These include active management, compliance with the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities framework, an accumulating share class and sustainability disclosures under Article 8 or 9 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.

The agency will also assess funds against requirements relating to their level of active management compared with their respective benchmarks.

As part of the process, the agency will terminate existing fund agreements for the affected healthcare and biotech funds.

However, the agency confirmed that the funds would remain available for trading on the premium pension platform until the procurement processes were completed and new fund agreements had been concluded.

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