IPE Awards (Country & Regional): PensionDenmark wins for Denmark, Bosch for Germany

PensionDanmark won the title for Denmark for this year’s IPE Country & Regional awards. 

A judge said: “PensionDanmark continues to be a frontrunner with direct investments into infrastructure, lending and real estate using direct deal sourcing from industrial partners.”

Accepting the award, CEO Torben Möger Pedersen said: “We have received this a ward for the third year in a row and winning this award has inspired us to continue doing good and doing well at the same, both to achieve good returns on the investments of our members’ savings and make our contribution to sustainable investment goals.”

In March the scheme said it had become the first pension provider in Denmark to include figures on its own environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in its annual independent auditor’s report – a move its leader believes others will follow.

Bosch Pensionsfonds AG won the title for Germany. 

A judge said Bosch was a “highly innovative pension fund in the German market, with a well-thought out holistic concept to support its clear mission and sophisticated management system based on predictive analytics”.

Dirk Jargstorff, CEO of the fund, said that winning the IPE award not only is a great recognition of the work the scheme has done so far, but also “confirms out ambition striving for excellence as it motivates us deeply to continue the path of innovation”.

This year the fund has explored digital solutions to motivate employees to stay up to date with their occupational pension schemes, among other initiatives.

In Ireland the Construction Workers Pension Scheme (CWPS) received the honour as a judge said the scheme was “an excellent hybrid that is well designed in every aspect, from the age related funds and investments within those funds to internal annuity rate, communication, trustee control and governance”.

Accepting the award, Andy O’Gorman, chair of CWPS, said that winning the accolade would not have been possible without the hard work of its team and its administration company CPAS, particularly in such a difficult year.

For the UK, the Environment Agency Pension Fund (EAPF) was triumphant. “This fund should be applauded, with strong performance figures backed by a proactive, efficient and innovative response to the pandemic, whilst keeping focus on ESG and the views of its members,” a judge said.

Craig Martin, the chief pensions officer at the EAPF, said: “Particularly during these difficult times, it’s fantastic to receive the award recognising our overall achievements, namely our commitment to investing responsibly, excellent financial performance, strong governance and placing our members at the heart of everything we do.”

EAPF is one of the largest defined benefit pension schemes in the UK and it invests according to responsible investment principles: environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are key factors in all of its investment processes.

By 2015, EAPF aims to invest 25% of its fund in companies that make a positive contribution to a green and sustainable economy, in part by investing in environmental themed funds.  

Please tune in here for day 3 of the IPE Conference & Awards 2020 to see who has won in the bronze, silver and gold awards categories.