Nordea Bank and DNB Bank have wrapped the sale of their 60% stake in Luminor Bank to a consortium led by private equity funds managed by Blackstone for €1bn.
The deal, first announced in September last year, has been concluded after it obtained all customary regulatory permissions.
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Luminor was created last year by merging Nordea’s and DNB’s Baltic operations. Currently, it holds 23% lending market with €15bn of assets.
It employs nearly 3,000 people and operates 64 branches in the Baltic region.
Following the completion of the deal, Nordea Bank and DNB Bank each own 20% stake in Luminor Bank.
Earlier, Nordea Bank and DNB Bank held 36% and 43.5% stake, respectively.
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By GlobalDataConcurrently, Nordea has also inked a forward sale agreement with Blackstone to offload its remaining 20% stake over the near to medium term.
The forward sale, which is subject to certain conditions, is likely to be concluded over the next three financial years, Nordea said.
The Finnish bank, in a statement, said: “Nordea will realise a positive impact on the Common Equity Tier 1 (“CET1”) ratio of approximately 10bps from closing the transaction. Nordea already received approval from the ECB to treat the holding in Luminor, for prudential purposes, using the equity method in 2019 Q2.
“This approval had a positive impact on CET1 of approximately 10bps, recorded in our Q2 financial results. The total positive CET1 impact from the transaction is therefore approximately 20bps.”
In March this year, Nordea completed the acquisition of Norwegian online bank Gjensidige Bank for NOK5.5bn (£490m).
Gjensidige Bank offers a suite of digital banking services, car financing, mortgages, unsecured loans, and savings and investments.
