DENMARK - PFA Pension saw its market share increase in the first nine months of the year despite reporting a fall in gross premium income.

"In spite of the economic crisis in society, we are witnessing a growing interest from customers in corporate pensions and our new healthcare scheme," said Henrik Heideby, group CEO and president of the customer-owned commercial pension company.

Premium income stood at DKK10.6bn (€1.42bn) for the January to September period, down 2.3% from the same period in 2008. "Since the other pension companies have reported falls in total inflows of between eight and 24%, PFA's position in the market has strengthened in the first nine months of the year," the provider said in the interim statement.

The investment return was up year-on-year at DKK11.7bn compared with the loss of DKK5.3bn reported for the first three quarters of 2008. In percentage terms the return was 5.1%.

This rise was thanks largely to the bull run on stock markets seen this year, and PFA's Danish equities returned just under 42% while equities overall produced 25%.

"The key economic figures point to the global economy making progress in the rest of 2009," PFA said. "In industry, optimism is growing and at the same time order books are being filled. This gives justified hope that there will be a continued positive result for unit-link pension customers in the next few months."

PFA said it had also strengthened its capital over the year so far, with the capital base growing to DKK14.6bn from DKK12.9bn. The capital adequacy ratio had risen to 175% from 159%. PFA had total assets under management of DKK227bn at the end of June.

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