Sampo has been managed in practice in Stockholm for two years now. Sampo’s strongest connection to Finland may end up being Björn Wahlroos, who, despite his ruthless criticism, enjoys a surprising amount in Finland. But Wahlroosk will soon give up, writes Anni Lassila, HS’s financial journalist.
Financial group Sampo’s head office on Fabianinkatu in Helsinki today is like a felt slipper factory, and it’s not just because of the coronavirus.
Mandatum Asset Management, currently part of the Group, takes care of Sampo’s insurance companies’ huge investments. Last autumn, the portfolio managers and the rest of the investment team moved from Fabianinkatu to Bulevard to Mandatum’s premises. The migration distance was one and a half kilometers.
Sampo’s Group management, on the other hand, has moved much further. Sampo has been run almost entirely from Stockholm ever since it was Swedish Torbjörn Magnusson started as Group President in early 2020.
Partly this is due to the corona, but only in part. The members of Magnusson’s management team are no longer the investment director Patrik Lapveteläinen and CEO of Mandatum Life Petri Niemisvirta are Finns. The rest are Swedish or Norwegian.
Magnusson, who previously served as If’s CEO, was accustomed to running the business from If’s headquarters in Stockholm. It was natural to continue, as If is by far Sampo’s largest holding.
Lapveteläinen’s study is still on Fabianinkatu.
According to HS, the Norwegian appointed CFO of the Group in 2019 Knut Arne Alsakerin yes, he originally had to move to Helsinki. But then came Korona and telecommuting became the norm.
Since the matter was reconsidered, there has been no change for tax reasons, among other things. Now Sampo’s management rarely pops up in Helsinki.
Also Sampo’s business is increasingly located outside Finland. Sampohan is ultimately a company-owned holding company that does not have its own actual business.
It wholly owns the life insurance and asset management company Mandatum, the insurance companies If and Hastings and about half of the Danish insurance company Topdanmark.
Until three years ago, Sampo was looking forward to participating in the development of Nordea, the largest bank in the Nordic countries. Sampo owned more than 20 percent of Nordea.
In 2018, he was the then Chairman of the Board of Sampo and Nordea Björn Wahlroos moved Nordea’s headquarters to Finland after interesting steps.
Read more: This is how Wahlroos moved Nordea to Finland
However, Sampo’s enthusiasm for banking quickly ceased after Wahlroos made Torbjörn Magnusson Chairman of the Board of Nordea in 2019 and Wahlroos gave him a full-time study of the bank’s business.
Magnusson did not see in strictly regulated banking opportunities the margins as high as he was used to in insurance. Magnusson then became Sampo’s President and CEO, and Sampo decided to withdraw from the banking business altogether to focus on insurance.
Nordea’s holding has now shrunk to only 6% and the rest will soon be sold by Sampo. On Thursday, Nordea announced that Magnusson will resign from Nordea’s board by the autumn. The British are proposed as the new chairman of the board Stephen Hester.
Read more: Nordea announces a special change of leadership on Thursday night, anticipating Sampo’s final move
In place of Nordea, Sampo has acquired more insurance business, Hastings in the UK. Thus, in addition to Mandatum, Sampo’s business in Finland is now part of If’s Finnish part.
Is there already justified to ask how long Sampo has been a Finnish company in general? What ultimately determines a company’s nationality?
Officially, Sampo is still a Finnish company with its legal headquarters in Finland. It is also listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, not elsewhere.
Both are subject to change by management and owners. Only the decision of the general meeting is needed.
Sampo has also been made a solid Finnish holding by a large Finnish company. For a long time, the state Solidium was a solid anchor owner of Sampo for historical reasons, but in the last couple of years it has also sold its ownership.
The state now owns about six percent of Sampo.
Finnish pension companies are still reasonably large owners of Sampo, but they treat their investments purely as financial investments, and Sampo’s home country is of little importance to them.
Sampo is still a popular public share. In total, about 25 percent of the ownership is in Finland.
Sammon perhaps the strongest bond with Finland is ultimately the chairman of the board Björn Wahlroos, created by Sampo.
In 20 years, Wahlroos made the financial group built on the basis of the insurance company Sampo and the state Post Bank one of the most valuable companies in Finland, which has generated a considerable increase in value and dividend flow for both the state and other owners.
Only Nordea, Nokia, Neste and Kone exceed Sampo’s market capitalization of almost EUR 25 billion on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
Sampo’s success has also made Wahlroos self-immersed.
In Stockholm Wahlroos, who officially lives in Finland, still spends about a quarter of the year, although he likes to criticize his country of birth mercilessly.
In addition to his work responsibilities, he enjoys his island villa and makes friends at his manor in Haliko as a hunter.
Admittedly, last fall’s hunting weekends were canceled as a wave of bird flu raging in the shadow of the corona epidemic killed the pheasants bred by Wahlroos for hunting. It is told earlier Evening News.
Wahlroos said a year ago he would resign as Sampo’s chairman this year or next year at the latest. Wahlroos, who is probably in a good mood, will not give up until a year later, even though he will turn 70 next autumn.
After that, Sampo’s bond to Finland will be even thinner.
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