Nordea overtakes Nokia as most valuable firm listed on Helsinki Stock Exchange

In 2000 Nokia market cap was 9.2 times greater than now

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In a stark reminder of the aversion felt by investors towards the Nokia stock in recent months, the banking and financial services group Nordea has risen to the number one spot as the most valuable company listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. Telecommunications giant Nokia, in turn, was demoted to the number two position in terms of market capitalisation after last week’s profit warning.
     
The change is a historic one, since for more than ten years Nokia has held the top spot as the most valuable company listed in Helsinki. For example in 2000 the total market cap value of Nokia was so great and so overwhelming that it would have bought the next twenty listed companies in Helsinki.
      The market capitalisation value of a company is calculated by multiplying the number of the company’s shares by the price of a share. Ten years ago a Nokia share cost more than 60 euros and the company was riding high as the most valuable in Europe (see archived article from 1999). Today the corresponding share price is just over seven euros.
      In the past ten years Nokia’s stock price has fallen by about 87 per cent, despite the fact that the company has even tried to sustain its share price by redeeming its own shares.
      Buying the company’s own shares has even been used as an alternative to paying dividends, a move which in retrospect does not appear to have been the most felicitous choice.
     
Nordea in turn was not even called Nordea ten years ago, as at the time it was still missing its Norwegian ingredient.
      The name Nordea was coined in October 2000, when the Norwegian Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse became part of the Nordic Baltic Holding group.
      Since that time the company’s stock price has strengthened by approximately 50 per cent.
     
Apart from the banking and financial services sector, also the energy and investment fields and the lift and escalator manufacturers Kone have flourished. The energy company Fortum has climbed to fourth place from being eighth, despite the fact that its oil arm Neste Oil - worth around EUR 3.3 billion - was even separated into a group of its own in the process.
      In the investment sector Sampo has benefited from Nordea’s rise in value, for today Nordea is a Sampo affiliated company.
      Apart from Sampo, another new player on the list is Kone, which within the past ten years has purchased Partek and rid itself of Cargotec, worth around EUR 1.2 billion.
     
In addition to Nokia, also forest industry giants Stora Enso and UPM Kymmene are on the list of the companies whose stock valuation has fallen.
      These two groups, however, have not lost nearly as much from their market capitalisation value as Nokia.
      Their losing ground on the list is simply down to other companies having increased their value more.
      Also the telecoms field (Elisa, Helsingin Puhelin), information technology services (Tietoenator) and the media field (Sanoma) have fallen out of the top ten list in the past ten years.
      Sanoma News, the publisher of Helsingin Sanomat, is part of the Sanoma group.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nokia´s distress is likely to last a while (18.6.2010)
  Nokia issues 2Q profit warning, leading to crisis of confidence among investors; weak sales in smartphones to blame (17.6.2010)

See also:
  A small piece of history from the Archives - "Nokia becomes Europe´s biggest by market capitalisation" (8.12.1999)

Links:
  Nokia
  NASDAQ OMX Nordic
  Nordea

Helsingin Sanomat