Danica Pension’s investment director Peter Lindegaard is leaving the Danske Bank subsidiary as the firm hunts for a replacement with the skills to implement its new strategy focusing on direct holdings. 

A spokesman for Danica Pension said news reports that Lindegaard had been fired following years of disappointing investment results were “a bit strong”. 

He told IPE: “Jacob Aarup-Andersen (Danica Pension CFO) and Peter Lindegaard believe it is sensible to find another investment director with different skills.” 

The company and Lindegaard – who has held the position of investment director for five years – had agreed it was the best thing to do, he said. 

Danica Pension will unveil a new investment strategy in the autumn that will focus on investing directly in companies. 

“The CFO is working on it right now,” the spokesman said. “In the future, we will do things differently from the way we have done up to now.” 

Last month, Danica Pension made its first major direct investment, heralding the start of its new strategy. 

The pensions firm bought a minority stake in marine logistics firm Unifeeder for DKK400m (€53.6m), as part of its overall strategy to replace some bond investments with this type of investment. 

Over the next two years, Danica Pension said it expected to make direct investments of more than DKK10bn. 

Although Lindegaard has not yet left the company, an interim investment director has been put in place, the spokesman said.  

Lars Pano Thørs, who was already working in Danica Pension’s investment department, has taken over Lindegaard’s role temporarily, he said. 

Danica Pension had not yet initiated a search for a new investment director, but this process will begin very soon. 

Its spokesman added: “Peter has been a valued member of staff in Danica, and we thank him for his efforts.” 

Lindegaard himself was unavailable to comment. 

Aarup-Andersen joined Danica Pension at the beginning of June as CFO and one of the subsidiary’s three directors, coming to the pensions subsidiary from another part of the Danske Bank group – Danske Capital. 

At Danske Capital, he headed the launch of the Europe Long-Short Dynamic fund.  

He has a background in hedge fund management, having co-founded the Montrica hedge fund in 2006, which was then sold to TPG-Axon in 2010. 

Before that, he worked in London for Goldman Sachs’s investment banking unit between 2002 and 2005.

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