Established under its current form in 1998 following the merger of Pension Sampo and Pension Varma, the private insurance firm is one of the biggest private investors in Finland. As at December 31 2018, Varma had €44 billion of assets under management.
In 2015, Varma became the first Finnish pension fund to set a goal of carbon neutrality for its portfolios by 2035. Its Climate strategy includes setting stricter exclusionary screens for its listed equity and corporate bond portfolios related to Coal and Oil exploration, and increasing exposure to low-carbon firms across all asset classes (listed and private equity, index funds, corporate bonds and real estate) to align its portfolios with a 1.75 degree world.