A partnership approach to private markets

The biggest asset allocation change over recent years at Pensam has been a significant increase in its exposure to unlisted investments. Unlisted investments now make up about half of the assets of the Danish pension company’s main pension product Fleksion, which holds about DKK 100 billion (EUR 13.4 billion) out of its DKK 170 billion in total assets. Unlike its other pension products that provides its customers with guarantees, Fleksion offers customers an average rate, which allows for greater risk capacity and more flexibility.

The pension company has furthermore employed a very specific – and in some instance rather innovative – approach to how to gain its exposure and manage its alternatives allocation, which stretches across private equity, private credit, infrastructure and real estate. In 2017, Pensam established a collaboration with the private equity manager Churchill, which is part of Nuveen and manages assets on behalf of TIAA, the US teachers’ pension plan. Signing the agreement was also one of the first things Claus Jørgensen did after joining Pensam as its chief investment officer. The investments in the US via Churchill now make up