Finnish investment company Sampo, the largest shareholder in Nordea Bank, is reportedly looking to divest its stake in the bank by 2022.
Sampo is exploring a deal ahead of a potential sale of the bank, Bloomberg reported citing Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Industri (DI).
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The investment firm owns as much as 19.9% of Nordea Bank’s outstanding shares.
Sampo is the largest shareholder in the bank, followed by activist investor Cevian Capital, which owns a 4.4% stake in the bank.
Cevian Capital began purchasing stakes in Nordea Bank since late 2018.
Sampo has been spearheaded by executives with experience in the insurance sector after Torbjorn Magnusson was appointed as the company’s CEO, back in January 2020.
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By GlobalDataThe divestment in Nordea Bank is aimed at accelerating its focus on the insurance industry, according to Bloomberg.
Sampo owns Sweden-based insurance companies If P&C Insurance Holding, Mandatum Life Insurance and Topdanmark, the report added.
Back in August 2020, Sampo also agreed to acquire a majority stake in the UK-based non-life insurance company Hastings Group Holdings.
Sampo said that this deal was “a step in the strategy to allocate more capital to property and casualty insurance.”
Europe deals
Banks in Europe have been preparing for cross-border mergers and deals as they try to recover their profitability.
Recently, the shareholders of the Italian government-owned lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS) approved a bad-loan clean-up plan to accelerate the bank’s sale.
The Italy treasury, which has worked on the plan for two years, is hoping to find a buyer by the year-end.
Italy was initially looking at Banco BPM as the right fit for acquiring BMPS.
Banco BPM said that it remains ready for further industry consolidation following UBI Banca’s hostile takeover by Intesa Sanpaolo.
Italy also approached UniCredit’s executives to find out if they are interested in acquiring the government’s majority stake in BMPS.
In Spain, Unicaja Banco resumed negotiations on merger with rival Liberbank, while CaixaBank agreed to buy rival Bankia, valuing the business at €3.8bn ($4.5bn).
Meanwhile, Banco Sabadell is reportedly eyeing strategic options in the European banking sector as the merger talks began taking place.
In May, HSBC signed a deal with Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg (LBBW) to take full control of its German unit.
