ATP is allocating billions of Danish kroner to long term investments in Danish companies
With ‘ATP Long Term Danish Equity’ the Danish people’s pension fund has allocated up to six billion Danish kroner to support the development of new or current Danish companies. The ambition is to create high returns, growth and Danish jobs by contributing to the long-term development of multiple competitive advantages in the Danish business community.
At ATP, we invest to ensure the largest possible pensions for our members, and our focus is therefore on generating good risk-adjusted returns which match ATP’s pension liabilities. We see opportunities to generate good risk-adjusted returns by securing long-term capital to more Danish companies to develop and scale up their position. By this we hope to contribute to the creation of the future large Danish companies with a global potential.
There are multiple reasons for this new investment initiative. Danish companies are in a unique position and can contribute with solutions and know-how on an international level as the global green transition picks up speed and demand for green solutions increases. At the same time, many Danish companies are themselves facing a green transition and a comprehensive digital transformation of their business models which requires capital and competencies to realize. Concurrently, more than 20,000 Danish companies will face a succession in the coming years, and therefore some of them will need capital and assistance to pursue greater international ambitions.
CEO Bo Foged says this of ‘ATP Long Term Equity’:
”As ATP is now increasingly making direct long-term investments, we are part of ensuring growth in Danish companies and thus also expect to support the growth of the Danish economy and create Danish jobs while the returns will benefit everyone in Denmark.
We have a special responsibility here in Denmark, and we see good opportunities for contributing to the development of more large Danish companies while at the same time creating good risk-adjusted returns for our members.
We believe that ATP is an attractive, long-term, independent, responsible and predictable investor with comprehensive direct and indirect investment experience, which has both the capital and the competences to move companies in a positive ambitious direction. These are factors which we believe will be attractive for Danish companies who have the relevant need or desire for things such as international scaling.”
As a starting point, the focus of ‘ATP Long Term Danish Equity’ will be on companies in specific industries such as, for example, the IT, MedTech, pharma and renewable energy sectors who are facing business and/or succession-related transformations. Our focus will also be on profitable companies with a turnover
of at least 250 million Danish kroner where we can get ownership stakes of between 20-49 per cent. The Board of Directors has so far allocated 6 billion Danish kroner to investments in this area over the next three years.
‘ATP Long Term Danish Equity’ will be driven by a new investment team of three persons based at ATP’s headquarters in Hillerød.
“Historically, there have been some good examples of how we in Denmark have been highly proficient at building major international companies, but the potential is there for having even more. We would of course like to contribute to this, as it will benefit both the Danish business community and Danish society,” Bo Foged concludes.
