Shareholders of Saxo Bank Group (Saxo), a leading multi-asset trading and financial-technology firm with presence in key financial centres such as Hong Hong, Shanghai and Singapore, have received an offer from Sampo Group, a leading Nordic financial services group, to take up a stake of 19.9 per cent of the bank.
The other significant owner development concerns Geely of China. In May 2017, it was announced that Geely Financials Denmark A/S, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd (Geely Group), had made an offer to buy 30 per cent of the shares of Saxo. Geely Group has offered to buy more shares and will thus become majority shareholder with a total of 51.5 per cent.
TPG Capital and SinarMas accepted the offer from Geely and Sampo Group and will sell 100 per cent of their shares of 29.26 per cent and 9.9 per cent respectively. Co-founder and CEO Kim Fournais’ stake of 25.71 per cent remains unchanged.
The transactions are pending regulatory approvals and are expected to be finalised during the next six months.
“With both Geely Group and Sampo Group as key shareholders in Saxo Bank, we have a strong group of owners with a wish and ability to foster long term growth. Geely is well known for its strong power of execution, ability to foster growth and entrepreneurial spirit. With Geely we secure a strong position in core growth markets in Asia with greater China as center. Sampo Group has a long and impressive history in financial services bringing a wealth of experience and insight in the financial sector. This marks a new and important chapter for Saxo Bank giving us a unique and strong foundation and I look forward to taking Saxo Bank to new highs together with our shareholders and employees, ensuring our clients a best-in-class experience. I would like to thank the current investors for their partnership, belief in Saxo Bank and their contribution over the years,” said Kim Fournais, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer.
“We have found Saxo Bank to be an extremely strong partner for many of Geely’s investment partners across the Greater China region. We at Geely Group believe that Saxo Bank’s technologies and product value can be effectively expanded across the Asian region, which is why we are willing to offer to buy more shares in Saxo Bank. Over the past decade Saxo Bank has developed a strong reputation in global financial and regulatory technology, which we hope to strengthen in the Asia region in the coming years,” said Daniel Donghui Li, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Geely Group.
“Saxo Bank is an exceptionally interesting unicorn in the Nordic fintech area and Sampo is excited to participate in developing its global reach further. Saxo has a unique trading platform which, in our view, is the best in the market and offers great potential globally for white labelling to financial institutions, investors and family offices,” said Kari Stadigh, Chief Executive Officer and President, Sampo Group.
Saxo (a fully licensed and regulated bank) is a leading multi-asset trading and investment specialist headquartered in Denmark, offering a complete set of trading and investment technologies, tools and strategies. For almost 25 years, Saxo’s mission has been to enable individuals and institutions by facilitating their access to professional trading and investing through technology and expertise.
Saxo enables its private clients to trade multiple asset classes across global financial markets from one single margin account and across multiple devices. Additionally, Saxo provides institutional clients such as banks and brokers with multi-asset execution, prime brokerage services and trading technology.
Geely Holding is a global automotive group that owns several well-known international automotive brands, with operations spanning the automotive value chain, from research, development and design to production, sales and servicing.
Now headquartered in Hangzhou, China the group comprises three businesses: Geely Auto Group, Volvo Car Group and Geely Commercial Vehicles Company. Its brands include Geely Auto, LYNK & CO, Volvo Car, Polestar, the London Taxi Company, Yuan Cheng Auto, PROTON (49.9%), and Lotus Group (51%).
Sampo Group is a leading Nordic financial group operating in property and casualty insurance and life insurance business. The parent company Sampo plc is listed in Nasdaq Helsinki with a market capital of EUR 25 billion. Sampo’s subsidiary If P&C Insurance is the largest property and casualty insurer in the Nordic region, with more than 3.7 million customers in the Nordic and Baltic countries. Mandatum Life is a financial services company that provides wealth management, remuneration services and personal risk insurance to private and corporate customers in Finland and in Baltic countries. Sampo plc is also the largest shareholder in Nordea Bank and Topdanmark, which are Sampo’s associated companies.
