Geely Group buys out Saxo Bank stake in joint fintech venture
Denmark’s Saxo Bank has completed the sale of its stake in Saxo Geely Tech Holding A/S (Saxo Fintech) to Geely Group, an automotive company based in Hangzhou, China.
Saxo Bank sells stake in fintech venture to Geely Group
Saxo Fintech is the result of an equally split joint venture between Saxo Bank and Geely Group launched in 2019 as a means to connect banks and fintechs in Mainland China with Saxo’s financial and regulatory technology, which would be supported, deployed and operated as a separate technology stack by Geely.
As Geely is the majority shareholder of Saxo Bank, the sale, which was first announced in June, has been completed via a share transaction in which Saxo Bank received its own shares – about 2% of its total outstanding shares – from the group in exchange for Geely Financials Denmark to gain control of its stake in Saxo Fintech.
Geely now has full ownership of the venture, while its total stake in Saxo Bank has fallen from 52% to 49.88% as a result of the deal. The firm remains the majority shareholder of the bank.
The bank’s other major shareholders include Fournais Holding, the holding company of its founder and CEO, Kim Fournais, which has a 28.09% stake, and Sampo/Mandatum with a 19.83% stake.
Saxo Bank says the sale will allow it to “optimise its business operations and focus on core markets and clients”.
