Denmark’s Danica reported a profit before tax of DKK 1.1bn for the first three quarters of 2025, down DKK 310m year-on-year, primarily reflecting an "extraordinary" DKK 220m first-quarter correction after the "exceptionally strong" investment result in 2024 that had boosted its previous year's result.

According to the results, the company’s premiums momentum was “strong”, growing by 18 per cent in the first three quarters of 2025 and surpassing the growth targets set out in its strategy.

All segments drove growth, fuelled by customer collaboration with Danske Bank and strong inflows of companies of all sizes.

Due to this high level of growth, Danica’s total pension assets under management surpassed DKK 500bn for the first time.

Danica CEO, Mads Kaagaard, noted that overall, he finds the company’s performance “satisfactory”.

“Due to market developments, we and the rest of the pension industry have had to renegotiate more customer agreements than ever before, and I am really pleased to note that a very large proportion of our existing customers have reappointed us as their pension provider,” he explained.

“At the same time, we have experienced a strong inflow of new customers over a long period of time, which has translated into strong growth overall.”

Kaagaard added that reaching total pension assets under management of DKK 500bn is a “strong indicator” of the trust shown by Danica’s customers, which he said is an incentive for the company to continue developing the best pension and healthcare solutions for its customers.

In addition to this, the results showed that after a “steep” downturn earlier in the year, the US equity markets have rebounded, causing a positive spill-over effect on Danica’s returns.

Despite this, it noted that the "significant" depreciation of the US dollar this year has detracted from performance.

Overall, both bonds and alternative investments have delivered stable, positive returns, which, together with equities, demonstrate the strength of a diversified investment strategy.

“I am pleased that the financial markets have been somewhat more stable of late, and that returns have recovered for the benefit of our customers,” Kaagaard said.

The return for customers with 20 years to retirement and a medium risk profile was 4.7 per cent for the first three quarters of 2025, a drop from 12.3 per cent for the same period last year.

Over the past five years, this customer group has achieved a return of 48 per cent.

These returns are reflective of what is being seen by pension funds and companies across Europe. For example, in Finland, Elo reported an investment return of €1.4bn for the first three quarters of 2025, down from €2.09bn in the same period last year .

The results also showed that Danica’s health and accident business is improving and produced a lower loss than in the year-earlier period, especially for quarter two (Q2) and quarter three (Q3).

The loss for the first three quarters of 2025 was DKK 275m, compared to a loss of DKK 676m for the same period of last year. Meanwhile, for Q2 and Q3, the loss was DKK 47m, a big fall from the loss of DKK 457m in the same period last year.

The reasoning behind this, Danica said, was that it helped 30 per cent more customers return to work after a period of absence in 2025 compared with the same period of 2023, while also the number of employees reported absent due to illness decreased by 10 per cent.

Danica credited this outcome to intensified treatment offers, with customers having easier access to using Danica’s healthcare solutions both in the earlier and the later stages of their illness.

“Thanks to our combined initiatives, we have successfully improved our health and accident result, and we are now much closer to breaking even each month,” Kaagaard said.

He said the progress was driven by Danica’s healthcare programmes, as its early action initiatives have helped reduce the number of employees being reported absent due to severe illness, while at the same time, it has helped a higher proportion of customers on long-term absence return to work.

Kaagaard also highlighted that the company have adjusted its individual customer prices on an ongoing basis to balance income and expenditure, which has also contributed to this outcome.

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