Danske eyes pension assets sale

D anske

Bank A/S says it’s looking into selling its pension assets in Sweden and that talks with a potential buyer have already started.

The news comes as Denmark’s biggest bank finds itself embroiled in one of Europe’s worst ever money laundering cases, potentially resulting in hefty fines amid multiple criminal investigations.

Danske’s acting chief executive, Jesper Nielsen, told Bloomberg earlier this week the bank was looking into exiting some non-core assets, though he said such divestments were not viewed by Danske as a way to generate more money to cover potential fines.

In a statement on Thursday, Danske said it was informing the market of its “negotiations with a specific buyer” following a media inquiry. The talks are “ongoing, and there can be no certainty that a transaction will be concluded.” It didn’t identify the buyer.

Danish financial daily Borsen on Friday named the potential buyer as private equity fund Polaris, which it said was making an offer in excess of 2 billion kroner ($305 million).

Danske shares were up as much as 3.3% during morning trading in Copenhagen.

Nordea said in a note the price reported by Borsen on the surface appears to be “too low” for a market share in Sweden of about 8%. However, “a capital gain should be regarded as positive by the market in view of the overall low valuation of the share,” Nordea said.

News of a possible sale of Danske’s Swedish pension business, which serves about 150,000 customers, comes roughly a year after the bank agreed to buy the Danish pension operations of Stockholm-based SEB AB for about $1 billion, as part of a goal of expanding its wealth management division.