Stockholm (NordSIP) – AkademikerPension, the €21 billion pension scheme for Danish academics announced today 19 March 2025 that it is terminating a longstanding mandate with State Street Global Advisors (SSGA). The decision to reallocate the €430 million European equity mandate was made principally over concerns regarding the US manager’s changing stance on sustainability and ESG-related corporate engagement.
The Danish pension scheme’s decision closely follows the recent loss by SSGA of a €32 billion mandate from the UK’s People’s Pension master trust, which had also cited ESG-related concerns. Many of the largest US managers have been publicly rowing back on previous climate commitments and sustainability targets in response to the shift in position on these matters form the new Trump administration. SSGA, BlackRock, Vanguard, and Fidelity Investments are among those that have withdrawn from collaborative engagement efforts such as Climate Action 100+ or the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative.
AkademikerPension, which outsources roughly 60% of its assets to 70 external managers, is fully committed to its sustainability targets and commitments. With this in mind the Danish pension provider implemented a structured monitoring and evaluation process in 2018, designed to help ensure that external managers’ policies and activities were conducted according to AkademikerPension’s wishes. SSGA had recently been scored the lowest ‘C’ rating on this basis, which led to the termination of the 20-year relationship.
In today’s statement Anders Schelde, Chief Investment Officer at AkademikerPension said: “We have quite high standards of sustainability and accountability in our investments, and our asset managers don’t have to think exactly like us, as these are obviously complex topics and there may be different ways to achieve the same goal. But they need to be aligned with our basic approach and the way we see the world.”
Along with many of its Nordic peers, AkademikerPension has been keeping a close eye on developments in the US. On 14 March 2025 the pension provider effectively served an ultimatum on US car manufacturer Tesla, with CEO Jens Munch Holst offering the firm one last chance to avoid divestment at its next annual general meeting (AGM) in June. Tesla had previously been in favour due to its innovation and successful promotion of electric vehicles (EVs).
AkademikerPension has long been engaging with the company over issues of workers’ rights and governance concerns. However, according to Holst they have now run out of patience following the lack of any progress on these matters and the controversial involvement of Tesla CEO Elon Musk in American and European politics. AkademikerPension has filed a shareholder resolution on workers’ rights to unionisation. If this is rejected at the AGM – as fully expected – Tesla will be added to the pension scheme’s exclusion list.
