Nordea Bank to get back into real estate
Bank buys into real estate company that it sold four years ago
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Nordea Bank has made an about-face and is getting back into the real estate business.
The bank announced on Tuesday that it was buying a 15 per cent slice of Finland's largest real estate company Realia from the company's main owner Sponsor Capital.
Half of Realia's business comes from Huoneistokeskus, from which Nordea divested, selling its share to Sponsor Capital four years ago
Sponsor had been ready to sell a part of Realia to foreign investment companies, but the new arrangements mean that the concern will remain in Finnish ownership.
Realia and especially Huoneistokeskus are very important for Nordea, which has lost market share in the housing loan market.
Huoneistokeskus has also seen its position weaken after Nordea gave it up.
A functioning link between real estate agents and a bank is considered important on the highly competitive real estate market in Finland. All other Finnish banks also have their own agents.
Experts say that Nordea's decision four years ago to sell its shares in Huoneistokeskus was a mistake.
The manoeuvres probably cost Nordea tens of millions of euros. The price of the deal was not revealed, but Helsingin Sanomat has learned that it was in the neighbourhood of about EUR 100 million. After the deal, Nordea will have a 20 per cent holding of Realia.
Helsingin Sanomat
