Denmark’s Saxo Bank may be for sale

Denmark’s Saxo Bank is exploring the possibility of a sale, 18 months after talks to merge with a blank-cheque company fell apart, say four informed sources.

The group, which offers digital trading and investment services, invited investment bankers recently to pitch for an advisory role on its options, three of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A deal could value privately held Saxo Bank at about €1.5bn€2bn, two of them said. A sales process could start later this year, according to one of the sources.

The structure of the deal has not been decided and could result in the sale of either a minority or majority stake, the second person said.

All four sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is private.

Chinese carmaker Geely owns close to 50% of the group, with the bank’s CEO, Kim Fournais holding 28% and Finnish insurer Sampo almost 20%, according to Saxo Bank’s website.

Geely and Saxo Bank declined to comment. Sampo said it was in the process of offloading its stake to its asset management spin-off Mandatum. Mandatum declined to comment.

Saxo Bank is expected to attract attention from private equity groups, said two of the sources. European banks and asset managers could also show interest in a full sale, said the second source.

Saxo Bank entered discussions in September 2022 to merge with a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) and become publicly traded, but the negotiations were called off amid “challenging market conditions”.

Fournais told Reuters in early 2023 that the company could explore another transaction to give its institutional backers a new chance to cash in, without specifying a timeline.

He said he would prefer an initial public offering, but left the door open to a potential private stake sale.

Sampo said at the time it did not regard its investment in Saxo Bank as strategic.

While Saxo Bank’s clients reached a record of more than 1.1-million last year, the group posted a drop in net profit to 653-million Danish krone ($93.01m), adjusted for software writedowns related to the migration of its BinckBank acquisition and the disposal of its Saxo Fintech joint venture.