Wallenberg and Wahlroos after Nordea
Even Nordea CEO expects merger
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By Tuomo Pietiläinen
Who can still remember that just over ten years ago it was possible to walk into banks with the names KOP or SYP, or Postipankki?
None of these Finnish alternatives exist. After many complicated manoeuvres KOP and SYP were merged with the Swedish Nordea, and Postipankki, which was swallowed by Sampo Bank, has been sold to the Danes.
The merger of Danske Bank and Sampo means that Nordea will have some real competition. Nordea and Danske-Sampo are in a fairly balanced competition over the title of the largest bank in the Nordic Countries.
All Finnish banks that can be sold abroad have been sold. Mutual banks - that is, banks owned by the customers - the cooperative banks, savings banks, and the Tapiola Bank, cannot be sold abroad.
Aktia and Ålandsbanken are not considered very attractive to foreigners, although Handelsbanken negotiated on the buying of Ålandsbanken about five years ago.
Eyes have focused on Sweden and Denmark, where there is still something left to buy, and arrangements are possible.
Four Swedish, one Danish, and one Norwegian bank are involved in the game. Sampo, which gave up its banking operations in Finland, is one Finnish company that might be capable of such acquisitions.
It was revealed in December that Sampo is now one of the ten largest owners of Nordea stock.
Sampo’s Nordea holding has grown to about 34.6 million shares, which is exactly 1.3 per cent of Nordea’s share capital.
Observers have seen Björn Wahlroos in the background, investing money from the sale of Sampo Bank into a new and bigger bank. Nordea’s share price shot up immediately when investors began speculating that Wahlroos was spending EUR four billion on reorganising the Nordic banking field.
Another Big W is interested in Nordea as well.
Jakob Wallenberg, chairman of the board of Investor, the investment company of the Wallenberg family, said at the World Economic forum in Davos last week that the Swedish Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken could be a possible partner for the financial concern Nordea.
"The Swedish state is Nordea’s biggest owner, and it has said that it wants to sell its share. SEB is one potential partner, but this is still speculation", said Wallenberg to the Danish financial journal Børsen.
The likely targets of the interest of Wallenberg and Wahlroos are the same 19.9 per cent share of Nordea that the Swedish state is selling off.
Lars G. Nordström, the head of the Nordea banking concern, denied rumours on Friday of a merger with SEB. "Mere talk", Nordström said, in Davos in an interview with CNBC.
A deal involving one fifth of Nordea would in any case be a prelude to a merger of SEB and Nordea, and to an upheaval in the whole Nordic finance sector.
There were hints of some interest earlier, when Börje Ekholm, CEO of Investor, said in an interview a week ago that he was considering merging SEB with some other Nordic or European bank.
The Investor and Wallenberg foundations currently own more than one third of SEB’s C-shares. With this holding Investor can prevent a situation in which SEB is forced to merge with some other bank with the help of a hostile bid.
Nordea might be a mere financial investment for Sampo, with a price that rises in the wake of upheaval in the Nordic banking field. Wahlroos and Wallenberg nevertheless know that in order to succeed, it is necessary to be sufficiently large, or then to focus on being a specialised bank concentrating on a small group of clients.
According to Nordström, this is the situation: within 5-10 years, Nordic banks will be too small from a European point of view, which means that mergers "could be the right solution economically".
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 29.1.2006
TUOMO PIETILÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
tuomo.pietilainen@hs.fi
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| 6.2.2007 - THIS WEEK |
 Wallenberg and Wahlroos after Nordea |
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