The Danish pension fund for pharmaconomists (Pensionskassen for Farmakonomer) has awarded the contract for its pensions administration to PKA, which runs three social and healthcare sector pension funds.

Henrik Klitmøller Rasmussen, chairman of the DKK10.4bn (€1.4bn) pharmaconomists’ pension fund, said: “We had many high-quality offers, but we think the best offer overall came from PKA.

“We have gained a solid platform with a high level of expertise and service, with a low level of costs.”

Peter Damgaard Jensen, chief executive of PKA, which has DKK250bn of assets under management, said: “The more members PKA has, the more robust it is, and the greater the possibility we have of being able to give both current and future members advantages in the form of high returns, low costs and pension increases.”

In January, the pension fund for pharmaconomists said it had started looking for another pension fund to partner with, after outsourcing all its investment to BlackRock in 2016.

The scheme’s switch to PKA will take effect from the start of 2018. It said its 7,800 members would see a significant reduction in their annual administration costs from that point. Klitmøller Rasmussen said costs would be well below half their current level once the transition costs had been paid. These transition costs would be paid off in one to two years, he said.

In the last few years, many independent labour-market pension funds in Denmark have merged with each other or with commercial pension providers, after coming under pressure because of increasingly onerous regulatory demands as well as the competitive pressure to lower costs.

The pension fund for pharmaconomists is the smallest independently run pension fund in Denmark. Under the PKA deal, the pension fund said it would continue as an independent organisation with its own supervisory board, actuary and with the annual general meeting remaining as the highest authority. 

Pharmaconomists – a term specific to Denmark – are specially qualified experts in the field of pharmaceuticals.

PKA has been actively seeking new members and contracts to run private sector pension schemes since last autumn, when it announced it had developed a new pension product.

In January, PKA won a contract to provide pensions for the Danish Chiropodists’ Association’s (Danske Fodterapeuter) 1,800 members.

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