Cash reserve in surprising exit: leaves the standard ferry consortium
Af Benita Dreyer-Andersen
PensionDanmark is no longer part of the consortium behind the Standard Ferry.
The pension company announced this in a written response to Søfart.
- PensionDanmark has reached an agreement with the other parties in the standard ferry project to withdraw from the consortium. Questions regarding the future financing model should therefore be directed to the Ferry Secretariat and Danish Standard Ferries, the statement said.
PensionDanmark was part of the consortium behind the Standard Ferry along with OMT and the Ferry Secretariat. MEQ is also associated with the partnership as an investment administrator, and several subcontractors are also involved, including Jens Kristensen, who designed the electric ferry M/E Ellen.
This development follows the decision by the five currently involved municipalities - Slagelse, Aalborg, Odder, Faaborg-Midtfyn, and Svendborg - to abandon the original financing model. This model was based on a 20-year leasing agreement between the municipalities and PensionDanmark, where the latter would own the ferries and lease them to the municipalities.
The municipalities have instead chosen to borrow the money from KommuneKredit, as the leasing agreement with PensionDanmark became too expensive.
Now that the municipalities no longer need PensionDanmark as a financial partner, the pension company's role has been played out.
The case from Odder
Odder Municipality joined the standard ferry project in December 2022. The annual leasing sum plus payment for an operational support system would amount to 6.9 million DKK for the municipality's part.
However, the plan did not hold up, as the project's price increased twice.
The first price increase was in September 2023, where the municipality's annual expense suddenly became 7.2 million DKK due to adjusted hourly rates from the consortium.
The second time was at the start of 2024, when the macroeconomic and geopolitical situation led to price increases, causing the project in its current form to cost the municipality nearly 9.85 million DKK annually.
That is almost three million DKK more per year than what was originally budgeted, or an increase of just under 43 percent.
- It is a matter of cheaper financing by borrowing the money in KommuneKredit. That is why we are doing it, Mayor of Odder Municipality Lone Jacobi has previously told Søfart.
Both Aalborg Municipality, Slagelse Municipality, and Faaborg-Midtfyn have confirmed to Søfart that they are working further with the model where KommuneKredit acts as a bank.
Win-win-win
It was in May 2021 that PensionDanmark could announce that they had joined the consortium together with the Ferry Secretariat and OMT.
It was highly publicized and called a 'win-win-win' solution by the then chairman Torben Möger Pedersen.
- With the model we have proposed, municipalities are relieved of risk and capital commitment, while they are given the opportunity to optimize ferry operations through qualified sparring, he said.
- It provides greater flexibility and security against potential operational risks and not least a future-proof and sustainable ferry solution developed by experienced ship designers, naval architects, and ship investors. It is truly a win-win-win solution for the consortium, the municipalities, and the passengers, he said.
PensionDanmark has always been meant to play the role of the financial reservoir, which matched well with the ferry project, according to Torben Möger Pedersen.
- It is a project that fits perfectly into our strategy of yielding returns on members' pension savings through innovative and sustainable investments that contribute positively to society and create better conditions for the Danish island population, he further stated.
Even at that time, it was agreed that the municipalities and PensionDanmark should enter a leasing contract with each other.
- The ferries are offered on long-term leasing agreements to the municipalities, who against a fixed payment obtain full control over the ferries and thus retain full responsibility for the daily operation of the crossings, it was explained.
The standard ferry
- The Ferry Secretariat represents 17 municipalities that operate ferry services to a total of 26 Danish islands and several smaller crossings.
- In October 2020, the secretariat initiated an innovation tender for a standard ferry concept as an alternative to the current model, in which the individual municipalities themselves purchase ferries to serve the Danish small islands.
- PensionDanmark contributes with the financing, while Odense Maritime Technology is responsible for designing and developing the ferry concept. MEQ is attached to the partnership as an investment administrator, and a number of subcontractors are also associated, including Jens Kristensen, who designed the electric ferry M/F Ellen, which sails between Søby on Ærø and Fynshav on Als.
The 17 municipalities behind the Ferry Secretariat are: Aalborg • Norddjurs • Svendborg • Lolland • Aabenraa • Slagelse • Haderslev • Kalundborg • Struer • Faaborg-Midtfyn • Holbæk • Horsens • Hedensted • Assens • Skive • Langeland • Odder
