Danske Bank Sells Pensions Business

Tom Burroughes

12 December 2018

, which faces potential heavy fines, has agreed to sell its pension fund operation - Danica Pension Försikringsaktiebolag - for a sum of SEK2.6 billion ($287 million), following its recent announcement that a sale was being considered.

The pensions unit, which has 60 employees, 150,000 personal customers and 15,000 business customers, is being sold to a consortium consisting of the Nordic private equity fund Polaris and the German private equity fund Acathia. The institutional investors Sampension and Unigestion are also part of the consortium.

"Danica Pension Sweden has seen strong developments in the past several years and has created good solutions for our customers,” Jacob Aarup-Andersen, member of the executive board of Danske Bank, said. “We will continue to focus on further developing the best pension solutions in Denmark and Norway, where our business models are more aligned and there are synergies across the markets.

The sale does not affect Danske Bank’s growth strategy in the Nordic markets, neither generally nor in the wealth management area, where we see good growth."

The sale price comprising around SEK2.35 billion is a cash payment and the remainder is in the form of a debt instrument from the seller. The sale is not expected to affect the net profit of Danske Bank A/S for 2018, as payment of the purchase sum awaits completion of the sale, the statement said.

The bank has built a capital buffer of up to $2.7 billion to cope with any fines, its acting CEO, Jesper Nielsen, is quoted recently as having said. CEO Thomas Borgen recently resigned amidst the scandal.

US authorities are probing Danske Bank about how its Estonian branch became a channel for money to flow out of Russia, a case spanning almost a decade and covering about $230 million. The scandal, adding to other money laundering cases in recent years, has prompted EU policymakers to call for more concerted action to defeat dirty money.