Danica Pension, a part of the Danske Bank Group, has agreed to sell its Swedish pensions business Danske Pension Försikringsaktiebolag (Danica Pension Sweden) to a consortium led by Polaris and Acathia for SEK2.6bn ($286.32m).
Image: Danske Bank to divest Danica Pension Sweden. Photo: courtesy of Danske Bank A/S.
Established in 1999, Danica Pension Sweden offers pension, capital pension and life insurance services to 150,000 retail customers and 15,000 corporate customers. The company, which is also called Danica Pension Sverige, is said to be the sixth largest life insurance company in Sweden.
Apart from the Nordic private equity fund Polaris and German private equity firm Acathia, the consortium also includes Danish pension company Sampension and Swiss asset manager Unigestion.
Polaris said that last year Danica Pension Sweden increased its premium payments by 39% to DKK12.7bn ($1.93bn).
The Nordic private equity fund further said that the Swedish life insurance firm developed a highly efficient IT platform and focuses exclusively on the administration of pension plans with asset management and distribution managed by external partners.
Polaris partner Jan Dahlqvist said: “We see attractive opportunities in the Swedish pension market and are convinced that Danica Pension Sverige is the company best positioned to benefit from these opportunities and continue its impressive growth and development in the coming years.
“Danica Pension Sverige has won significant market share in the past decade and created a unique IT platform, ensuring high efficiency and offering scalability to cover many more partners and customers under the new independent ownership.”
Upon closing of the transaction, Danske Bank will continue its business partnership with Danica Pension Sweden relating to the distribution of pension products in Sweden.
Danske Bank executive board member Jacob Aarup-Andersen said: “With this transaction, Danica Pension Sweden will continue, together with its new owners, to further develop the company, and this was an important factor for us.
“In addition to an attractive sales price, we have ensured that the strong cooperation on pension customers between Danske Bank and Danica Pension Sweden will continue, to the benefit of our customers in Sweden.
“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.”
Subject to approval from the relevant authorities, the transaction is expected to be closed during the first half of 2019.