Aktia surprisingly changes its CEO again
Summary
- Aktia unexpectedly announced the immediate departure of incoming CEO Carl Haglund before his term officially began, citing unspecified reasons for his dismissal.
- We assess that the dismissal might be linked to recent ownership changes, although this was denied by the Chairman of the Board, and the Financial Supervisory Authority confirmed it was not due to an ongoing suitability assessment.
- In our view, the sudden leadership change could delay the implementation of Aktia's new strategy, and we expect the new CEO to be appointed internally to expedite the recruitment process, with Anssi Huhta being a strong candidate.
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Translation: Original published in Finnish on 09/16/2025 at 08:44 am EEST
Aktia announced on Monday morning that the company's incoming CEO Carl Haglund is stepping down from his position and leaving the company with immediate effect. The news was very surprising, as Haglund's actual term as CEO had not yet officially begun.
The reasons behind the dismissal are unclear
The press release states that the Board of Directors has assessed that Carl Haglund no longer fulfills the prerequisites required to act as the company's CEO. However, there is no information on the exact reason or events behind this. We estimate that this may be related to recent changes in ownership, but the Chairman of the Board, Rosenberg denied this theory in a statement to Kauppalehti. According to the Financial Supervisory Authority, the matter was not about an ongoing suitability assessment either, as the process for this was still pending. In any case, the quick dismissal can be considered exceptional, as Haglund's official CEO tenure had not even begun yet.
Personnel changes make it difficult to implement changes
Haglund's task was to advance the company's new strategy, so his sudden dismissal and the subsequent search for a new CEO will likely slow down the implementation of the measures once again. For this reason, we estimate that the new CEO will come from within the company, which will make the recruitment process significantly shorter and avoid a waiting period due to non-compete agreements, for example. We consider Anssi Huhta, Executive Vice President of the Banking Business, to be the strongest candidate.
Aktia Pankki offers banking services. The company is a Nordic financial company and offers financial services, asset management, insurance, and real estate brokerage. A large part of the services are offered via the company's network services and are offered to both private and corporate customers in most sectors. The largest presence is in the Finnish market. The company is headquartered in Helsinki.
Read more on company pageKey Estimate Figures2025-08-06
| 2024 | 25e | 26e | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating income | 308.8 | 292.5 | 291.9 |
| growth-% | 7.4 % | -5.3 % | -0.2 % |
| EBIT (adj.) | 124.4 | 105.0 | 99.8 |
| EBIT-% (adj.) | 40.3 % | 35.9 % | 34.2 % |
| EPS (adj.) | 1.45 | 1.15 | 1.09 |
| Dividend | 0.82 | 0.83 | 0.89 |
| Dividend % | 8.9 % | 7.1 % | 7.6 % |
| P/E (adj.) | 6.4 | 10.2 | 10.8 |
| EV/EBITDA | 7.1 | 8.9 | 8.7 |
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