DENMARK - The chief executive of Danish pensions institution LD will step down next year, having steered the company through its split into two management groups as well as its recent DKK42.5bn (€5.7bn) investment management tender.

"I am leaving because my contract with LD is expiring," said CEO Carsten Koch. "My employment was originally planned as a two-year contract which now expires on 1 May 2011."

A new CEO is likely to be appointed within a month or two, he said.

Koch came to LD in 2009 after finishing his job as chairman of the Danish Tax Reform Commission.

"My task was to organise LD's transition from one joint management group together with the investment management company LD Invest - an LD subsidiary - into two separate management groups and to organise LD's EU tender of the investment management portfolio," he said.

Now that this has been done, he said he plans to continue with his role as professional board member. Koch's many roles include those of chairman of the Danish Employment Council, the CHP (Copenhagen Port and Development Company) and the pension fund of Copenhagen Harbour. 

LD was set up by the Danish government at the end of the 1970s with capital of around DKK1bn to pay supplementary lump sum pensions in lieu of employee allowances to offset inflation. Cumulative returns have outpaced payments, and at the end of 2009 LD reported assets of nearly DKK60bn.

A new act in 2004 allowed LD to manage capital for other pensions institutions, which eventually led to the establishment of LD Invest as a separate entity.

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