Long-Term Value Creation

The Foundation’s strategy is based on five value pillars, with Leading Healthcare Companies the landmark by which our Strategic Investments department steers. Our ambition is that, by 2030, we will be a significant, long-term owner of a portfolio of five to eight small- or large-scale healthcare companies, principally in Denmark, which are either global leaders or heading in that direction.

 

Our aim is to develop both small- and large-scale healthcare companies and help them become global leaders. We are able to do this because we have been building up strong skills in the field of healthcare throughout the Foundation’s entire existence. Over the past decades, we have established ourselves as a competent and engaged owner – across all of the Foundation’s fields of activity – and, in close collaboration with the companies’ management teams, we play an active role in creating long-term value.

The enterprise foundation model is an incredibly strong, sustainable type of ownership that ensures long-term value creation, keeps companies in Danish hands and contributes to society by – in the case of the Lundbeck Foundation – awarding grants for public biomedical sciences research at Danish universities. We wish to spread the unique potential of the enterprise foundation model to more Danish healthcare companies with ambitions to become global leaders.

We consider that the complementary approaches of our long-term healthcare ownerships and the venture investments of Lundbeckfonden BioCapital create synergy and add value for the benefit of the Danish healthcare sector – as well as for the many patients who, ultimately, will profit from the novel treatments and solutions the companies are working hard to bring to the market.

One aspect of this is the research that is funded by the Lundbeck Foundation and in which it invests – ground-breaking research performed at Danish universities by talented researchers at all levels, from medical students to professors. Another aspect is giving this research the opportunity to benefit the many patients who need it. To achieve this, research must be commercialised to bring it out of the laboratory and home to the patient.

When the Lundbeck Foundation became owner of ALK, it was a research company. Today, ALK is a global leader in the field of allergy therapeutics. Since its IPO in 1999, Lundbeck’s revenue has increased from DKK 4 billion to DKK 18.2 billion, and the company has a stated ambition to become a world leader in the field of brain health.

Falck is already a global leader in emergency response and has a clear ambition to become a leading operator in the field of retail healthcare in the Nordic region.

At the end of 2022, the Lundbeck Foundation aquried 30% of Ferrosan Medical Devices (FeMD). This became the fourth strategic investment in the Lundbeck Foundation. FeMD develops and produces hemostatic products used against bleeding during operations. Their products are sold globally via Ethicon (a company in the Johnson & Johnson group).

The aim is for the Lundbeck Foundation's portfolio of strategic ownerships to grow by adding new acquisitions. At the same time, we constantly keep a close eye on developments in the Lundbeckfonden Emerge portfolio to assess whether one or more of these companies could have the prerequisites to become a long-term ownership.

Potential is the keyword. With the right potential, we can build up companies and make them global leaders. There are therefore special traits we look for when identifying our next acquisition.

What do we look for?

 

 

It is also important to us that the company's culture is borne by a business owner or management team with a strong ambition to build up a healthcare company in Denmark and to transform it into a global leader – still rooted, of course, in Denmark.