Norwegian fund manager, SKAGEN, is expanding its investment mandate for the SKAGEN Vekst fund, to include companies listed on the stock exchanges in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, as well as Norway.

Under the move, the fund mandate will change from 50 per cent Norwegian to 50 per cent Nordic as of 1 January 2014, and will still remain 50 per cent global.

The firm said that the new mandate will allow it to invest in Norwegian companies, as well as having “the scope to find undervalued companies with triggers for revaluation across the broader Nordic region”.

“Unit holders will benefit from the larger investment universe which will more than quadruple the number of investible stocks from 166 to 732; this will offer greater investment opportunities in industrial, information technology, financial services, material, pharmaceutical and retail companies as it allows for diversification and a broader mandate will improve the funds’ liquidity,” SKAGEN said in a statement.

Alongside this move, the firm is seeking unit holder approval to improve the SKAGEN Vekst fee model. The proposal is to introduce a year end high water mark for the variable management fee, such that following periods when the fund's value has fallen, it will not be able to charge a variable fee until the unit value at the previous high watermark, as per 31 December has been recovered.

In related news, SKAGEN also said its Norwegian-domiciled funds SKAGEN Global, SKAGEN Kon-Tiki, SKAGEN Vekst and SKAGEN Tellus will now be marketed in Belgium.

The expansion into Belgium is based on a growing interest and demand from Belgian investors, the firm said. Potential and existing clients in Belgium will be serviced remotely from SKAGEN’S international office in Stavanger, Norway.

In addition to its home markets in the Nordics, the firm currently markets its funds in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the UK and Switzerland.

As of 31 July 2013, SKAGEN had a total of €14.7 billion ($19.5 billion) in assets under management.