The Finnish state is the largest owner of the stock exchange – it brings uncertainty to the companies from the portfolio manager

The largest single owner of the Helsinki Stock Exchange is the Finnish state. The value of the state’s direct share holdings is 12.9 billion euros and Solidium through the state manages equity assets of 7.2 billion euros.

In Sweden, the largest owner of the Stockholm Stock Exchange is Dagens Industrin statement  by Wallenberg– family-controlled investment company Investor. At the end of June, the value of its stock market holdings was a total of 693.4 billion kroner, or about 61.4 billion euros.

CEO of the Helsinki Stock Exchange in the Markkinaraati program Henrik Husman, Stock Exchange Foundation managing director Sari Lounasmeri and Actian portfolio manager Juuso Kenkkilä consider the figures to show that Finland still lives in state capitalism.

“It’s a fact,” says Husman.

“At the Helsinki stock exchange, the state’s share of ownership seems to be the largest of the western stock exchanges,” he adds.

Although the returns of the Helsinki stock exchange have lagged behind Stockholm, Husman emphasizes that the return percentages of the Helsinki stock exchange are “in the top three among the world’s stock exchanges”.

“In that sense, I would be quite careful to criticize the state owner too much. Because if you ask how it would have turned out for us – if we start from the post-war period – without state capital or the state as the owner, then I would argue that not very well,” says Husman.

“But it could be that now the world has changed,” he adds.

Aktia’s portfolio manager Juuso Kenkkilä emphasizes that when the future is priced in the valuation of shares, the uncertainty is the discount rate.

“And the state owner brings uncertainty,” says Kenkkilä, emphasizing that an owner dependent on politicians brings political interference to companies.

“Then again, a face-to-face owner who has been involved for decades, and investors know what kind of owner he is and what kind of impact he has made on the companies he owns – in Finland Herlins is a good example, and in Sweden the Wallenbergs – reduces the risk that valuation coefficients rise to premiums,” Kenkkilä opens.

Husman and Pörssisaätiö CEO Sari Lounasmeri also consider the importance of face-to-face ownership to be great.

“It’s really huge. There is a very long list of these so-called family offices in Sweden, and that’s where the willingness to take risks comes from,” says Husman.

Lounasmeri of the Stock Exchange Foundation believes that the state cannot simply leave the owner’s position, but should activate other owners alongside it.

Investor, controlled by the Wallenberg family, is an investment company listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. It owns significant shareholdings, among other things Atlas Copcossa, ABB:ssa, SEB-at the bank, in Saab, in Wärtsilä mixed in Ericsson.

Lounasmeri hopes that such investment companies would also be on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

“What we would need would be companies like Investor in Finland,” says Lounasmeri.