News labeled nordic:

SEB is the top bank for large corporate clients and financial institutions for the entire Nordic region according to market researcher TNS SIFO Prospera. Here SEB’s CEO Annika Falkengren and Magnus Carlsson, head of the Merchant Banking division, comment on how the bank achieved a 20 per cent improvement in the rankings over 2010.

SEB’s venture capital unit and Industrifonden are investing 40 million Swedish kronor in the IT company Clavister AB to support its expansion plans. The firm offers advanced network security products that are in increasing demand as the threat from intrusions, malware and denial of service attacks increase.

The Swedish government is set to present its Spring Fiscal Policy Bill (SPFB) next week. SEB’s economists don’t foresee any major new reforms in the bill, but says it will instead focus on highlighting reform areas for the upcoming autumn Budget Bill. Still, they assume there will be additional reforms totalling 5 billion Swedish kronor in the SPFB and 15 billion kronor in the Budget Bill. This will result in a slightly expansive fiscal policy, equivalent to 0.2 per cent of GDP in 2012 and 0.3 per cent in 2013.

Swedish households again believe in rising house prices. SEB’s housing price indicator for April increased to +15, the highest level since June last year. In detail, 41 per cent of respondents expect prices to increase while 26 per cent expect prices to decrease. 26 per cent expect prices to stay unchanged. For the first time since June, all regions’ indicators are back at positive levels although there are still large division between regions.

SEB’s economists in new report raise their forecast for Norway’s mainland GDP growth to 2.6 per cent in 2012 from 2.3 per cent previously. Activity indicators for the first couple of months of the year suggest that overall activity has started on a stronger-than-expected footing. The solid impression fits with what respondents reported in the most recent report from Norges Bank's regional network. The economists keep their 2013 mainland GDP forecast unchanged at 2.9 per cent, but notes there’s upside potential.

Danish growth stalled in the latter part of 2011 as export growth slowed and public consumption kept contracting. The fiscal stance is set to reverse providing an important growth impetus this year, SEB’s economists forecast in a new report. Still the economists project full-year GDP growth of only 0.5 per cent for 2012 before it recovers to 1.4 per cent in 2013.

Norwegian investors have not acquired any major positions in the country’s currency during the past six months despite the recent strong performance of the krone, suggesting the rally has been driven by foreign investors. SEB’s experts see the krone trading around current levels for the remainder of 2012.

SEB’s Danish mutual fund SEBinvest Danske Aktier has received Morningstar’s 2012 award for best Danish equities fund. The SEB fund provided a better risk-adjusted return over a three year period than any other fund in the Danish equities category.

SEB's Danish life insurance company SEB Pension, has in collaboration with GreenGo Energy, established the largest solar cell power plant on the roof of Teknikerbyen (the Techno Village) in Virum, Denmark. The facility increases the overall solar power capacity of the country by eight percent.

SEB and fellow financers of the largest onshore wind farm to be built in Sweden have picked up an award for best project of its kind in Europe in 2011 from Euromoney title Project Finance Magazine. The 200 megawatt wind farm, being built outside Gävle in eastern Sweden, is expected to be finished next year.

European investors and money managers, in a survey done by Institutional Investor magazine, named SEB Enskilda the best provider of Nordic equity research. "The survey shows that our entire Nordic team is delivering research that customers outside the Nordic region highly appreciate," Fredrik Carlsson, head of Equity Research at SEB Enskilda, says

Net exports have stopped being the growth driver for the Danish economy. Instead, after retrenchment in 2011, fiscal policy will take over as growth driver in 2012 due to public investments and one-off transfers from a pension reform. However, the stimulus looks to be smaller than originally estimated. SEB’s economists therefore revise down their growth projection for the Danish economy in 2012 to 0.5 per cent but leave it at 1.4 per cent for 2013.

The broad contours of SEB’s economists’ expectations for the Norwegian economy remain intact. Growth in overall GDP should accelerate to 2.1 per cent in 2012 helped by a very strong investment cycle in the oil sector. However, relative to their outlook in November last year, they have sliced their forecast for growth in mainland GDP – excluding oil/gas and shipping – to 2.4 per cent in 2012, marginally slower than in 2011, but leave the 2013 forecast at 2.9 per cent.

The ongoing crisis in the euro zone and a weak economic outlook for many important export partners is taking its toll on the export dependent Finnish economy. Leading indicators have been continued to fall in late 2011 after a temporary upturn in September-October. SEB’s economists have revised downwards their 2012 and 2013 economic growth forecast for the Finnish economy to 0.5 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively.

SEB’s economists have revised their forecast for Sweden’s 2012 growth downwards to 0.5 per cent from 0.7 per cent, mainly due to further deterioration of the growth outlook for the euro zone. Incoming data also confirm the assessment that GDP declined in the fourth quarter and the economists have lowered their forecast to a 0.8 per cent fall compared to the third quarter.

SEB’s venture capital firm has become the largest owner of Teknikmagasinet with a 40 per cent share. The SEB company will work with the remaining shareholders to continue developing the home electronic and gadget chain’s business throughout the Nordic region. Since its inception in 1989, annual growth has been on average 25 per cent per annum. In 2010/2011 the company grew 8 per cent with a turnover of 800 million Swedish kronor including VAT.

A return to the number one position on the TNS SIFO Prospera ranking for cross-Nordic equities shows SEB is the industry's most appreciated and largest stockbroker in the business area, Fredrik Carlsson, head of equity research at SEB Enskilda, comments.

Trade publication Euromoney at its annual Awards for Excellence ceremony Thursday evening named SEB Best Bank, Best M&A House and Best Cash Management House in the Nordic & Baltic Region. This is the first time SEB can claim the award for best regional bank. In addition to the regional awards, Euromoney also named SEB Best Bank in Latvia.

SEB has been voted as the leading bank for arranging new bond issues on behalf of Swedish issuers, in the latest TNS SIFO Prospera rankings. The ranking it based on interviews with the finance directors of the 45 largest issuers of bonds in the Swedish market. "Of the 19 criteria we were judged on, we came out on top in all but three," says Anders Engstrand, global head of Origination and Syndicate at SEB.

Marcus Wallenberg, chairman of the board at SEB, greeted Finland’s president and prime minister, representatives from 11 countries around the Baltic Sea, important corporate clients, politicians and researchers welcome to a conference in Helsinki about the Baltic Sea on Thursday.

 During the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, SEB has stepped up efforts to position itself as the gateway to the Nordic markets for Chinese financial institutions. The timing is right as the Chinese government has started to cautiously relax controls on the flow of capital in and out of the country.

SEB and Norges Tennisforbund (Norwegian tennis association) have entered into a sponsoring agreement that takes SEB's Next Generation concept to Norway. The agreement runs through 2013 and is the largest youth effort in Norwegian tennis to date.

SEB is lead sponsor for the second annual Trade Finance in the Nordics Forum in Oslo 2 June.  Watch Lars Hagne, Acting Global Head Trade Finance on expectations and challenges ahead.

SEB is one of the three banks that recently assisted solar energy company Renewable Energy Corporation in raising a total of 14 billion Norwegian kroner through a rights issue and debt.

SEB has, since 2006, interviewed financial officers at Sweden’s 100 largest companies each quarter to check the temperature of the Swedish business community. Now, SEB in Norway has copied the Swedish concept and conducts a similar survey among financial officers at Norway's largest companies.