CEO's comments

CEO’s comments

The second quarter of the year was the first full quarter since the launch of our strategy update and our Momentum acceleration programme. We have worked purposefully on our strategic priorities and are seeing concrete results. We have also clearly increased our focus on customers in our strategic segments.

The operating environment remained challenging, with interest rates continuing to fall and the news flow affecting the markets and investor sentiment. With a 200-year perspective and an active market view, Aktia focuses on what we do best: creating value by taking good care of our customers and our customers' wealth – in all market conditions.

New customers, increased volumes and new investment opportunities

We have chosen to focus more strongly on our strategic customer segments: Premium, Private Banking, Institutions and SMEs. We see that these efforts are bearing fruit and we are attracting new customers in the segments. Both the entire loan book and assets under management increased during the quarter. Net subscriptions were positive in all strategic customer segments and the end of the quarter in particular was positive.

During the quarter, we launched the new equity fund Aktia Prosperity, which is classified as sustainable under SFDR Article 9. The private equity fund Aktia SolarWind III was open for subscriptions for the final time in June and received subscriptions amounting to no less than EUR 180 million. The demand for the private equity fund Aktia Debt Fund II also remained active.

Interest rate environment affects income

The comparable operating profit for the quarter, EUR 26.2 million, was 15% lower than last year. The change is mainly due to a negative impact on the interest income from lending as a result of the changed interest rate level, and the net interest income decreased by EUR 4.1 million to EUR 34.7 million. On the other hand, the net commission income of EUR 30.3 million remained stable at approximately the same level as last year, while the net income from life insurance increased by EUR 0.7 million to EUR 8.0 million due to the good results from investment activities and investment contracts. Thus, operating income was largely in line with the previous quarter. Cost control continued, but the individual impairments of a small number of credits are reflected in the result. The quarter’s comparable return on equity was 12.1%.

Strategic acceleration programme – Momentum

The strategic plan for value creation and the acceleration programme provide a clear direction for the work of the entire Group. The strengthening of the asset management business continued, for example, with the recruitment of several experienced specialists to key roles. The recruitments support Aktia's strategy, which, at its core, aims to offer reliable asset management services to a growing customer base.

The focus on Premium customers was visible in the launch of our renewed Premium concept. The banking business has been reorganised so that the customers who have placed their confidence in Aktia to manage their significant investment and financing matters will receive first-class advice from their own Premium banker. I am very proud of the high level of advisory services we offer our customers, of the solid competence of our employees and of the fact that we are effectively offering more and more customers Private Banking-level services.

A key enabler for all our activities is IT, and during the quarter, several IT milestones were achieved. For instance, a significant part of our servers were moved to cloud services.

Thriving employees

During the quarter, we conducted an extensive employee survey, which once again gave positive signals, with a net promoter score (eNPS) of 29. Our new culture index, which we measure in accordance with our strategy, was 4.3 on a scale of one to five. I am very pleased with these results. I interpret them as indicating that our employees are motivated and that our corporate culture benefits from having clear, common objectives. I would like to thank all our employees who have energetically embraced the execution of the new strategic plan.

Creating the best possible environment for our employees to succeed and working for a culture where we achieve our goals together is high up on the management's agenda. This is also a guiding principle for me during the time I carry the baton as interim CEO, until Carl Haglund takes over as CEO. On behalf of myself and all Aktia employees, I would like to warmly welcome Carl Haglund to Aktia.

We have our sights set on the future, on growth and on value creation. We will continue our determined work to implement our strategy.

Helsinki 5 August 2025

Anssi Huhta

Interim CEO