Translation: Original published in Finnish on 10/18/2024 at 07:47 am EEST

On Thursday, United Bankers announced a change of CEO. Long-term CEO Patrick Anderson will become the full-time Chairman of the Board of Directors if the 2025 Annual General Meeting decides to appoint him as a member of the Board of Directors following the proposal. Starting from November 1, 2024, John Ojanperä will become the CEO of the company, whom we consider a sensible choice for UB’s CEO. Anderson will act as an advisor to the new CEO until the 2025 AGM.

A logical transition

Ojanperä, who was elected as the new CEO, has been at UB since 2014 and has served as the CEO of UB Fund Management Company Ltd and a member of UB’s management team. Ojanperä holds a Master's degree in Economics and before his career at UB, he worked, for example, in mergers and acquisitions and auditing.

We believe that Anderson will shift his focus more toward strategy development while Ojanperä takes over operational responsibility. In practice, this could mean, for example, mapping M&A transactions and organic growth projects. We think this is perfectly logical, as UB still aims to grow its size class. We believe that in the medium term, UB will be active in the M&A field.

In our estimate, small Finnish financial houses that complement the company's product offering and medium-sized asset managers from Sweden, which would enable it to become more prominent in the Swedish asset management market, are interesting M&A targets for UB. In particular, smaller domestic product houses would be an interesting addition to the company, as UB could use its existing distribution network with them.