CEO's review
CEO's review
On this page, you can find the latest review of the CEO.
CEO's review Q4 2025
CEO Petri Niemisvirta
In the final quarter of 2025, Mandatum continued to deliver strong and steady growth in its capital-light business, a core part of its strategy. The profit before taxes of the capital-light business increased 28 per cent, and its most significant income item, the fee result, rose 18 per cent year on year. This indicates that we are focusing on the right things, namely creating profitable growth especially in institutional and private wealth management and corporate business. The robust growth also reflects the qualitative improvement in the Group’s earnings. Given Finland’s chronic underperformance in economic growth, we have succeeded well in our core business, also relative to our competitors. This affirms that our earnings model is on a sustainable footing.
Client assets under management reached a new billion-euro milestone at yearend, rising 10 per cent from the previous year to EUR 15.3 billion. Net flow for the quarter decreased from the exceptionally strong comparison period, as the quarter included a few larger client distributions related to alternative investments, which weighed on the net flow despite strong new sales.
The full-year profit before taxes decreased to EUR 182 million. However, it is good to keep in mind that the result for the comparison period included more than EUR 10 million related to the insurance portfolio sold to If in 2024. Mandatum’s cost efficiency improved considerably over the year. The cost/income ratio for client assets under management improved by 9 percentage points over the year and decreased to 49 per cent as a result of both strong growth in client assets and cost efficiency.
Investments in asset and wealth management are bearing fruit
During the year, we took decisive steps to advance our asset and wealth management business. The expansion of our international business was a standout success in 2025, and I am very pleased with what we have accomplished. Strong growth continued, especially in Sweden, but we also gained new clients in Central European markets. This demonstrates the international appeal of our competitive products as well as Mandatum’s ability to establish a credible foothold outside the Finnish market. To accelerate growth in Central Europe, we established a new sales unit in Luxembourg last autumn, whose operations have now started. I therefore have full confidence that the growth of our international business will continue this year as well.
Our quality investment products won many awards last year. At Scope Award 2026, the Mandatum Fixed Income Total Return Fund was named as the winner in the "Best Bond Global Aggregate EUR" category within the fund universe in Germany; Mandatum’s Managed Futures fund was awarded at the Nordic Hedge Award event as the best-performing fund in the Best Nordic Managed Futures/CTA Fund category for the second consecutive year; and the LSEG Lipper Fund Awards 2025 awarded Mandatum’s Nordic High Yield investment fund as Europe’s Best Fund over 3 years and Best Fund over 5 years.
We also excelled in private wealth management rankings: In November, Mandatum was chosen as Finland’s best private banking provider in Kantar Prospera’s Private Banking 2025 Finland customer study. In particular, the sales of discretionary mandates were exceptionally strong, and overall, assets under management in private wealth management grew by 19 per cent from last year. The strong growth also increased Mandatum’s market share. It is a pleasure to see that our investments in private wealth management are bearing fruit, as it is a key part of our growth strategy.
Among the highlights at the end of the year was the joint venture we launched with funds advised by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing to invest in residential properties in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The collaboration further expands Mandatum’s high-profile international partnerships and solidifies our position as an attractive partner for international investors.
In the corporate business, we maintained our market-leading position in supplementary pensions and personnel funds during the year, with net flow increasing significantly. Sales of risk life insurances remained solid, but did not meet the ambitious targets we had set for ourselves. We will continue to develop our operations with steady determination. The extremely high customer satisfaction among our corporate clients improved even further, as reflected in the very high 88.5 Net Promoter Score (NPS) we received. We serve companies at various stages of growth across Finland, working closely with management, owners and boards. Extensive contacts with Finnish business leaders also enable the cross-selling of wealth management products.
At good pace towards our capital distribution target
Mandatum’s Board of Directors has decided to propose to the Annual General Meeting a dividend of EUR 0.85 per share, totalling approximately EUR 427 million in dividends for 2025. At our Capital Markets Day in June, we announced our new long-term financial targets, one of which is a cumulative shareholder payout of over EUR 1 billion for the strategy period 2025–2028. We are well on our way to reaching this target, and we place great importance on being able to pay strong dividends, now and in the future.
Thanks to an excellent employee experience, Mandatum received the Great Place to Work® certification again in December, a testament to our success in creating a workplace built on trust and well-being. Our personnel’s exceptional dedication and strong customer satisfaction are evident in everything we do.
I would like to warmly thank all our stakeholders, especially our personnel, clients and shareholders, for their excellent co-operation and trust over the past year. After a highly successful year, we are now building on that momentum for the year ahead.
Petri Niemisvirta
Chief Executive Office