​Sampension Beats Danica To Win Occupational Pensions Contract From Insurer If

Danish labour-market pension fund Sampension has won another workplace pensions deal which will boost its assets total by around DKK630m (€84m), as the provider continues its drive to woo new business.

The contract, which covers 640 salaried staff of accident insurance firm If Skadeforsikring, was awarded at the end of tender process attracting several pension providers – including the insurer’s current pensions partner Danica Pension.

Though relatively small, the contract adds to recent business gains for the DKK262bn north Copenhagen-based pension fund, which announced two months ago it was taking over the pension provision for around 11,000 part-time Danish military pension scheme members from its rival Nordea.

Hasse Jørgensen, Sampension’s chief executive officer, said of the latest win: “It is really positive that If Skadeforsikring has chosen to come on board after the turn of the year, and we look forward to introducing them to our service concept with information meetings and personal advice.”

Economic value creation was absolutely central, he said, but added that his company was also equally focused on providing high advisory and service value.

The agreement with If Skadeforsikring involves annual contributions of DKK63m and will see total savings of about 10 times that amount transferred to Sampension, company spokesman Søren Espersen told IPE.

In addition to If Skadeforsikring, Sampension said other companies including GK Nordic and Sparekassen Kronjylland, had also joined it recently.

Since 1 January 2017, Espersen said Sampension had added more than DKK40bn in pension funds more under management, with customer deposits having risen by 30%.

He said Sampension participates in pension offerings in the corporate market to win, and always delivers its strongest bid.

“However, we enter into tenders with a lower price limit, which we do not go below,” he said, adding that things needed to add up.

“It is really very simple – growth is only sustainable when the pension company does not build up systematic losses that other customers are otherwise at risk of taking on.”

However, one of Sampension’s larger customers – Danish IT provider KMD – has now put its pensions contract out to tender, he confirmed. KMD has almost 3,500 staff mostly in Denmark, with some in Poland and India.

Danica Pension – the company’s current pension provider – did participate in the If Skadeforsikring tender, which was handled by the broker Skinnerup Consulting.

Asked to comment about this business passing to Sampension, Danica Pension’s chief operating officer Søren Lockwood said that in the past year, the focus of the Danske Bank pensions subsidiary had been on welcoming its 200,000 new customers from SEB Pension in Denmark, which has been a huge task.

“The integration of 250,000 policies is now complete, and the result is a stronger, larger and more focused Danica Pension, ready to attract new customers in the coming period,” he said.

“We are participating in more pension offers than a year ago and we are winning more,” Lockwood said.