Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway's state pension buffer fund as well as other funds on behalf of the country's national bank, has made a senior real estate appointment ahead of the pension fund's first property investment.

The manager has engaged Paul Golding to head a project to prepare for investment in international real estate. Golding was head of Merrill Lynch's real estate investment banking business in Europe and the Middle East until May 2006. He worked for the bank for six years.