Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Danish pension fund Industriens Pension has strengthened its investment team with the appointment of Martin Munkesø, Linsay McPhater, and Claus Bajlum as senior investment managers. The freshly-recruited investment managers will work with Industriens Pension’s investments in infrastructure, private equity, and bonds.
“Both Linsay McPhater, Martin Munkesø, and Claus Bajlum are highly experienced portfolio managers who can demonstrate solid results from investments in the relevant asset classes,” comments Peter Køhler Lindegaard, Chief Investment Officer at Industriens Pension. “I am convinced that they will contribute positively to ensuring continued good results and continued solid development of the portfolio in Industriens Pension.”
“Both Linsay McPhater, Martin Munkesø, and Claus Bajlum are highly experienced portfolio managers who can demonstrate solid results from investments in the relevant asset classes.”
Linsay McPhater, who most recently worked as a senior portfolio manager focusing on alternatives at Nordea, has become part of Industriens Pension’s team specializing in private equity investments. Before joining Nordea in October 2019, McPhater worked as an investment director in alternatives at Danica Pension for about five years. Martin Munkesø has joined Industriens Pension from AP Pension to focus on global investments in infrastructure. Before AP Pension, he worked as a senior portfolio manager at Nykredit Asset Management in manager selection both across equity mandates and alternative investments.
Claus Bajlum has joined Industriens Pension from Lægernes Pension, where he served as Head of Credit Investments for a little more than six years. He was responsible for the management of the pension fund’s credit portfolio, both liquid and illiquid/alternative credit. Before Lægernes Pension, Bajlum also worked as a senior portfolio manager focusing on fixed income and credit at TryghedsGruppen, as well as a senior analyst at Danske Bank, among others.
Industriens Pension had 11.5 percent of its investment portfolio of DKK 217 billion allocated to infrastructure at the end of 2022, and 14.7 percent to private equity. The Danish pension fund also had about DKK 79 billion allocated to fixed-income investments, split across gilt-edged bonds, investment-grade bonds, emerging market bonds, high-yield bonds, and unlisted credit. Although the bond and equity investments of Industriens Pension had an impact on the performance of its portfolio in 2022, there was a strong positive contribution from investments in infrastructure. The infrastructure portfolio returned close to 18 percent in 2022. “We can’t hide the fact that like all other large players, we have had losses on equities and bonds. In contrast, we have had very good returns on our infrastructure,” Jan Østergaard, Industriens Pension’s Head of Real Assets, said at the end of last year.