The Danish pension fund for academics P+ is seeking managers to "explore opportunities" in defence after developing a new three-year strategy for investments in unlisted equities.

The pension fund currently excludes investments in weapons that are prohibited under international conventions signed by Denmark, but does invest in conventional weapons, particularly in European defence.

Its head of alternative investments, Michael Dalsgaard, said the pension fund’s current trend is “toward increased investment in defence”, and it will continue to focus on Europe.

By the end of 2025, it had just under 70 investments in companies within the arms industry in its main portfolio, with 20 of these in European companies.

For example, in 2025, P+ invested a DKK nine-figure amount, together with the Danish private equity firm GRO Capital, in the Danish growth company Omada, which develops IT solutions for cybersecurity.

It was also part of one of the three consortia that bid for the PPP project involving barracks construction in Denmark, though it did not win the contract.

Dalsgaard explained that the pension fund is looking to pursue relationships with managers in the defence sector.

“We have not previously had local managers in this area, and there are not many to choose from in Europe. In addition, we are increasingly seeking exposure through co-investments – that is, investments alongside our asset managers – which raises the requirements for the managers we invest with,” he added.

However, whilst he said it had been “challenging” to find new European private equity opportunities aligned with defence, some of its current investments have moved into the sector.

In January 2023, P+ invested in Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s (MSIM) 1GT fund, which focuses on reducing CO₂ emissions by 1 gigaton by 2050.

While the fund’s investments were initially focused on sectors with large carbon footprints, such as energy, transport, food, and the circular economy, one of the fund’s investments is now used by the military.

Instagrid Go Mil was originally designed as a portable, low-noise, battery-powered power supply to provide clean electricity for the construction sector.

Today, Instagrid Go Mil is used by the military for intelligence operations, rapid-response units, border control, disaster response, and special operations that require a continuous power supply.

P+ said the German armed forces are among those that have invested in the solution.

Furthermore, through MSIM’s 1GT fund, P+ has also invested in the company Xocean, which provides data on seabed conditions, environmental monitoring, and offshore installations to companies and authorities. The data is collected via unmanned surface vessels.

Xocean owns and operates the world’s largest fleet of unmanned surface vessels, and with the growing need to protect subsea telecommunications cables, power cables, and pipelines, it has been a natural step to use the technology to support seabed infrastructure.

“Both Instagrid Go Mil and Xocean are examples of investments in companies whose original purpose was not to strengthen defence, but which have proven to be highly useful in that context,” Dalsgaard noted.

---