DENMARK/FINLAND – Swedish investment consultancy Wassum is planning a possible move into the Danish market with the opening of a Copenhagen office, according to Mats Langensjö, consultant and managing director at Wassum in Stockholm.

However, the group has delayed the opening of its Finnish office in Helsinki until the autumn due to recruitment problems.

“ We see a starting demand in Denmark from pension funds and other institutions, which has led us to the conclusion that we have to examine the market,” says Langensjö.
“ Whether that will be a physical presence depends on the situation, because we have an office in Helsingborg, just across the channel, which means that the formal presence might be through that office. One of our senior consultants is based there,” he adds.

The company has a region-wide strategy and aims to have a local presence in all of the markets.
Langensjö says: “ There have been several changes in Denmark, we’ve seen tremendous growth in Norway, and Finland looks very exciting for us. We also have a Scandinavian business plan, so it would be stupid not to be present in all of the markets, but I think we’ll avoid Iceland for a while.”

The opening of Wassum’s office in Helsinki, due to happen this month has been delayed until the autumn, due to last minute problems with recruitment and finding a suitable location for the office.
“ There was a press release out, which mentioned some names, but there are some practical problems, involving one of these guys, which changed the whole planning for a while,” says Langensjö.
“ This guy got an offer from an American organisation to move to the US, and we also had difficulties finding a good location in Helsinki.
“ We have to look for very entrepreneurial and very active people who can basically run the business from scratch,” he adds.

According to Langensjö, there are some limits to the Nordic markets, but growth in all of them is apparent: “ I would say that Finland is like Norway, and Sweden, in the way that there is a limited number of organisations who are prepared to work with consultants.
“ Of course, that does not change the situation for us, but in terms of growing in the domestic market you have to be there.
“ A local presence and local knowledge is our edge to the global front, we’d rather wait until we have the presence before we make the final push, but we also realise that there is a lot going on in Finland, so we’re pushing ahead that action.”

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