SEB has - via its subsidiary SEB Finans AB - signed an agreement to acquire 100 per cent of the shares in the Finnish leasing company ABB Credit Oy (with a balance sheet of EUR 1.2bn according to local statutory annual accounts of 2004) from ABB Oy.
The acquisition will strengthen SEB's overall foothold in the Finnish market and also cement SEB's position as the leading provider of large leasing financing in Finland.
The Finnish branch has been active in equipment leasing and receivables financing since 1999. With a wider range of highly value added leasing services, such as sale-lease-back and real-estate leasing, it will be possible to extend the business with SEB's existing customers in Finland and attract new customers, not least within the mid-sized corporate segment.
SEB today has some 300 employees in Finland representing SEB Merchant Banking, Enskilda Securities, Gyllenberg Asset Management and Diners Club Finland. SEB has leasing operations in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine, Poland and the UK.
The SEB Group is a North-European financial group for corporate customers, institutions and private individuals with ten home markets in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Germany, Poland and Ukraine. SEB has 680 branch offices and 5 million customers, of whom approximately 2 million use the internet for their banking transactions. On 30 June 2005, the Group's total assets amounted to SEK 1,800bn while its assets under management totalled SEK 1,012bn. The Group is represented in some 20 countries around the world and has a staff of about 20,000. Read more about SEB at www.sebgroup.com.