Danish Pension to Sell Off All US Bonds Over ‘Weak’ US Finances

Danish pension fund AkademikerPension announced Wednesday it plans to dump its approximately $100 million worth of U.S. government bonds, a decision it attributed to “weak” U.S. public finances.

The pension fund emphasized that the decision is not in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland, a territory of Denmark, noting that the fund is legally obligated to invest for the best possible return.

Alecta, a Swedish pension fund, confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday that it has been slowly selling off the majority of its U.S. Treasury holdings since the beginning of 2025. Alecta divested between $7.7 billion and $8.8 billion of U.S. government bonds, according to information reported in Dagens Industri, a Swedish business publication.

“It is not directly related to the ongoing division between the U.S. and Europe,” the Danish pension fund’s investment director, Anders Schelde, said about the sales decision in a statement. “But it has of course not made the decision any more difficult to make.”

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In the latest development of Trump’s ongoing campaign to acquire Greenland, the president had threatened to raise tariffs on European countries that oppose his goal, but he said later on Wednesday that a “framework” deal had been reached with European countries on the status of Greenland, though few details were available.

Trump said earlier in the week that any countries that did not comply by February 1 would be subject to a significant increase in tariffs. AkademikerPension plans to have divested any funds allocated to U.S. Treasurys by February 1.

“When the calendar says February 1st, there will be no U.S. government bonds in our portfolio,” Schelde said in the statement. He also said that while the pension fund’s investment strategy no longer includes U.S. bonds, it has used them for many years for liquidity and risk management. “The decision is rooted in the weak public finances in the U.S., which has led us to assess that we need to make an effort to find an alternative way to handle our liquidity and risk management. We have now found a manageable investment solution and are in the process of implementing it. The solution does not negatively affect the return.”

Alecta CIO Pablo Bernengo was quoted by Bloomberg News on Wednesday as saying his fund began selling Treasurys because of the “decreased predictability of U.S. policy in combination with large budget deficits and a growing national debt.”

AkademikerPension’s Schelde tried to dispel the idea that the pension would also withdraw fully or partially from U.S. stock markets.

“We will probably never be able to withdraw completely from the American market, as it has historically been a major growth driver in terms of returns,” Schelde said in the statement. “How the distribution will be in the future can be difficult to predict, and we are of course keeping a close eye on the situation.”

Schelde added that he believes that, over the coming years, many investors will try to provide more capital support for Europe’s economic independence from the U.S.

“It is clear that in that case, those funds will not flow to the U.S. or other non-European markets,” he said. “Our own recent investment in a European defense fund can be seen as a good example of this.”