Danish pension company Danica Pension achieved returns of 11.1 per cent for a customer with medium risk and 20 years until retirement in 2023, its annual financial report has revealed.

This represents a 25.3 percentage point increase compared to 2022, when the return for the same cohort of customer was -14.2 per cent.

Over the past five years, the same customer profile has received a return of 47.2 per cent after costs.

Danica Pension’s pension assets also increased over the year, from DKK 416bn to DKK 440bn.

During the year, the pension company saw a growth in gross premiums of 10 per cent to DKK 38.6bn, driven by an influx of new business customers.

Furthermore, Danica Pension increased its investments in the green transition by 47 per cent to DKK 55.4bn in 2023.

Initially, the pension company had a target of investing DKK 30bn in the green transition by 2023, with this goal being increased in 2021 to DKK 50bn.

Its next target for green investments amounts to DKK 100bn by 2030.

"It is very gratifying to join a company where we can look back on a satisfactory 2023 with positive momentum in so many areas after a challenging 2022,” commented Danica Pension CEO, Mads Kaagaard.

"It is a core task for us to create a return for our customers' savings in order to give them extra security for retirement, and in 2023 we struck a very good balance between risk and return for our customers.

”2023 has been marked by market challenges for the green transition. I am therefore satisfied that we have found many good investment opportunities in this area, including wind turbines and batteries for electric cars.

“We believe that the green transition goes hand in hand with returns in the future and that way the investments will benefit both the climate and our customers' savings."

---