PacWealth Capital, a Port Moresby-based investment management and advisory firm, has been given a $1.1 billion mandate by Papua New Guinea’s National Superannuation Fund.

“The mandate is evidence of the evolution of financial services in PNG that is being driven by wealth creation in a range of industries including mining,” says Ian Jenkins, PacWealth’s chief executive, in a statement.

PacWealth was established in PNG last year. It invests in PNG stocks, fixed income and property and has an alliance with Ascalon Capital Managers, a unit of Westpac Banking Corp.

Nasfund was the first approved superannuation fund to be licensed by PNG’s central bank. It is the pension fund for the country’s private-sector workers and is owned by seven private-sector groups affliated with the union movement, says Adam Hill PacWealth’s chairman.