Multiple approaches to company engagement 

PFA engages in dialogue with selected companies, where we seek to influence their business models and/or behaviour in order to reduce sustainability risks before they materialise. PFA focuses on critical issues that we believe are key to strengthening companies’ long-term value creation—and thereby improving returns for PFA’s customers. Looking ahead to 2030, we have identified the green transition, security as well as health and social issues as three strategic areas that are particularly important in our engagement with companies.

These engagements may take the form of strategic, long-term dialogues with individual companies on a range of ESG issues, or they may be more thematic in nature, targetting multiple companies at once. For example, PFA may engage with a group of companies on joining the Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi), prioritizing those that contribute most to the carbon footprint of our investment portfolio. 

Shareholder dialogue on SBTi target setting is in turn a key tool for achieving our own climate target: By 2030 at the latest, 51% of the value of PFA’s listed equities, corporate bonds and selected alternative investments must have climate targets validated by the SBTi. 

In addition, PFA monitors and screens its investments to ensure compliance with the international norms, standards and principles on which PFA’s Policy for Responsible Investment and Active Ownership is based. If a potential or actual breach is identified, PFA will engage in dialogue with the relevant company to clarify the specific issue and ensure that appropriate policies, strategies, and processes are put in place to prevent similar incidents in the future. 

Engagements may be led by PFA alone or carried out in collaboration with others. In 2025, PFA engaged with a total of 258 companies, either bilaterally, in partnership with like-minded investors, or through an external advisor. 

To support delivery on our strategic focus areas, we have set targets for the number of engagements leading up to 2030: 

• Green transition: Engage in dialogue with at least 150 companies on topics related to the green transition, including climate and nature, by 2030 
  
  
• Security: Engage in dialogue with at least 50 companies on security-related issues, including critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, security of supply and defence, by 2030
  
  
• Health and social issues: Engage in dialogue with at least 50 companies on health and social issues, including mental health, data ethics, algorithms, human rights, human capital and diversity, by 2030

Follow selected dialogues and initiatives in our engagement log

 

We use our voting power

Voting at a company’s general meeting is the most direct and regulated tool available to shareholders for influencing the company’s management. PFA monitors the management of the companies in which it invests and seeks, through the exercise of its voting rights as a shareholder, to promote a long-term, value-creating course for those companies.

We vote at general meetings of listed Danish and international foreign companies across our in the products ‘PFA Invests’, ‘PFA Flexible’ and the funds that PFA manages in ‘You Invest’.

We prioritize turning ownership into influence, In particular, we prioritise translating our ownership into influence, e.g., by submitting and/or voting forsupporting shareholder proposals, voting against board members, attending general meetings in person, physical attendance or publishing voting rationales at the general meetings where the importance of our engagement is greatest. our engagement is most significant. 

You can follow our voting activities here

 

We work to promote value-creating and future-proof framework conditions

As an active owner, we take a holistic approach and advocate for framework conditions that mitigate systemic risks, support a future-proof transition and strengthen our ability to deliver competitive risk-adjusted returns. In short, our goal is to address market failures and help establish a stable environment that supports long-term economic value creation – for the benefit of both society and our customers’ pension savings.

Climate change is a good example of a systemic risk that can disrupt the global economy and that we cannot diversify away from in the long term. In addition to encouraging the companies in which we invest to develop transition plans, we also participate in efforts to promote clear regulatory frameworks that support the transition of the economy while making it attractive to invest in it.

Against this backdrop, PFA actively supports legislation and policy frameworks that promote a value-creating transition. We do this through policy proposals, public statements, and investor letters in collaboration with like-minded investors. We also work to ensure that companies’ own lobbying activities are aligned with their stated objectives and transition plans.

Stay up to date with selected initiatives on our engagement log

 

We prioritise engagement over divestment and exclusion 

PFA generally does not consider exclusion and divestment as constructive long-term solutions, as they remove our ability to influence companies. Instead, PFA prioritizes active ownership to drive improvements – put simply, we would rather support a company in transition than wait for change to happen from the outside.

PFA’s decisions on potential divestment or exclusion are based on our assessment of whether there is a realistic opportunity to influence a company’s behaviour and thereby reduce its exposure to sustainability risks that could negatively affect its value.

At the same time, we exclude certain climate-related high-risk activities, controversial weapons and companies that systematically and consistently violate the international norms, standards and principles underpinning PFA’s Policy for Responsible Investments and Active Ownership. 

Read more about PFA’s approach to exclusion here

 

We escalate our efforts when necessary 

As an active owner, PFA can use dialogue, shareholder proposals and voting to threaten to remain. We will therefore, as a general principle, always seek to exert influence rather than divest. As a general principle, we seek to use our investments to exert influence over companies through:

• Dialogue: which may either be proactive, for example to support improvements in ESG risk management, or reactive in response to controversies or violations of norms. Read more
  
  
• Shareholder proposals: which may be submitted independently or in cooperation with other shareholders, and the publication of the rationale behind them, are another way in which PFA can seek to influence developments in a specific ESG area. Read more
  
  
• Voting at general meetings, for example by voting in favour of shareholder proposals, voting against board members and agenda items put forward by company management, attending the general meeting in person and asking questions, and informing company management of PFA’s voting rationale. Read more

PFA’s approach to escalating our efforts as an active owner is therefore based on the view that dialogue, shareholder proposals and voting offer the greatest opportunities to exert influence. Although divestment may send a signal to the relevant company and the market, investors also waive the opportunity to exert direct influence.