DENMARK - ATP Private Equity Partners, a subsidiary of the 27 billion-euro statutory pension provision fund ATP, has made three senior appointments to expand its "bandwidth" in response to a strong deal flow.

The new hires are Kasper Knudsen, Soeren Broendum Andersen and Matthew Baker.

"We are very pleased to add two strong investment professionals and a legal counsel to the team, each representing profound experience in venture capital, buyout and legal practice," said managing partner, Jens Bisgaard-Frantzen.

"We have decided to expand our team due to the fact that we have a well established market position and a strong deal flow. In addition, we hereby bring the ATP PEP team to a higher level of capacity."

"We continue to see a very strong pipeline from the US and increasingly also from Europe. We welcome Kasper, Soeren and Matthew to expand our bandwidth in a period where the fund raising market is coming back to normal."

The new people take the Copenhagen-based outfit to 15 investment professionals.

Knudsen joins from Danisco Venture, Andersen from Procuritas Partners and Baker from Slaughter and May.

ATP PEP says it has made commitments on 300 million euros extended to eight funds in 2004. It has more than 1.3 billion euros under management.

The current fund, ATP Private Equity Partners I has a commitment of one billion euros from ATP and SP. The two schemes have a strategic allocation to private equity up to 10%.