Sampo plc new shareholder in Saxo Bank and Geely ups offer to become largest shareholder

Shareholders of Saxo Bank Group ("Saxo"), a leading multi-asset trading and financial-technology firm, have received an offer from Sampo Group, a leading Nordic financial services group, to take up a stake of 19.9 percent of the bank.

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 percent 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 percent.

TPG Capital and SinarMas accepted the offer from Geely and Sampo Group and will sell 100 percent of their shares of 29.26 percent and 9.9 percent respectively. Co-founder and CEO Kim Fournais’ stake of 25.71 percent remains unchanged.

The transactions are pending regulatory approvals and are expected to be finalised during the next six months.

Kim Fournais, Saxo Bank Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, said:

“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.”

Daniel Donghui Li, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Geely Group, said:

“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.”

Kari Stadigh, Chief Executive Officer and President, Sampo Group, said:

“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.”

Saxo Bank presented H1 results in August showing a 45 % increase in profits compared to same period last year. Built on a consistent year-on-year increase, client collateral deposits are at almost DKK 100 billion (approx. EUR 13.5 billion euro).

About Saxo Bank

Saxo Bank Group (Saxo) 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.

As a fully licensed and regulated bank, 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.

Saxo’s award winning trading platforms are available in more than 20 languages and form the technology backbone of more than 100 financial institutions worldwide.

Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Copenhagen, Saxo employs more than 1500 people in financial centres around the world including London, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Paris, Zurich, Dubai and Tokyo.

As a regulated bank offering fully digitalised solutions for self-trading, advisory and discretionary services, Saxo is continuously at the forefront of innovation, meaning that clients benefit from proven technology. 600 IT developers and 150 back-office resources develop and deliver Saxo’s solution for the benefit of clients. Saxo Bank supports the full-service value chain.

About Zhejiang Geely Holding Group

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (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.

Founded in 1986 by Li Shufu, the company’s Chairman, in the city of Taizhou in China’s Zhejiang province, Geely Holding launched its automotive business in 1997 and is 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%).

Geely Holding sold a combined 1.3 million vehicles in 2016, with Volvo Car sales reaching historic highs of 534,332 cars globally and Geely Auto Group sales growing over 50% to reach 765,851 units in total, exceeding the group’s targets. In the first eight months of 2017, Geely Auto Group sold a combined 718236 units, an increase of 88% over the same period in 2016 and completing 65% of the groups revised 2017 sales goal of 1.1 million units.

ZGH has over 60,000 employees across the world, and has been listed in the Fortune 500 for the past six years. For more information regarding Zhejiang Geely Holdings please refer to the official website at www.geelyholding.com

About Sampo

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.