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Pension and savings giant Storebrand has steadily filled the money bin throughout the first half of the year. The capital under management reached NOK 1,143 billion at the end of June – NOK 123 billion more since the New Year alone. By far the biggest contribution is from returns on shares abroad, and with a good foreign exchange gain on top of that.
– Everyone who has placed the money in international mutual funds, and who is not currency hedged, has had a very good development this year. We will also notice that, says Grefstad to DN.
The Storebrand result increased in the second quarter, but was slightly lower than expected. The share was down about two percent on Friday afternoon.
Storebrand, result per 2nd quarter (in NOK MNOK) 2023 2022 Change Turnover 5035 4372 15.2% Operating profit (ebit) 1424 2062 -30.9% Profit before tax 1584 1133 39.8%
The interest rate “bites” more
Grefstad says that in the order of NOK 70 billion of the assets under management are pure savings from ordinary personal customers – money that is outside the large pension schemes. Here, it is now well felt that ordinary people are affected by higher interest rates and price increases in general.
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– Gradually, the interest costs “bite” better. There is an interest rate increase of 0.50 percentage points from June which has not yet entered people’s finances, and it is expected that another 0.50 percentage points will be added before the interest rate peak is reached. This means that we now see more moderate savings, even though most people still have a good ability to save, says Grefstad.
An average savings agreement in Storebrand is currently around NOK 1,800 in monthly installments. During and just after the pandemic, there were many customers who deposited lump sums far larger than this, typically NOK 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000.
– The large lump sums are now smaller, says Grefstad.
It is also partly connected to the fact that the most affluent private customers – with between NOK 2 and 50 million under management – are a little more wait-and-see and have taken some of the money out of shares and into fixed-income securities as a result of increased interest rates.
Many new small savers come through the savings app Kron, which Storebrand acquired last year. Everything can be saved here, from small amounts of kroner to larger investments.
– There we still see a good influx of around 1,000 new customers a month, says Grefstad.
Can get a new head office
DN has, through a number of articles, discussed the crisis-hit property fund Lysaker Park, which owns Storebrand’s head office at Lysaker in Bærum. Earlier in July, DN wrote that Finanstilsynet has labeled a capital raising for Lysaker Park, carried out by Arctic Securities, as illegal.
In an investor letter, the manager of Lysaker Park writes that Storebrand has been in “an exclusive process with another option for tenancies after 2027,” but that that process has now ended. Lysaker Park thus hopes to extend the lease in the current premises.
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Grefstad says it will keep all options open:
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– We have a lease until 2027, which means that we can now go quite wide and consider alternatives for the next 15-20 years. Then we look at many possibilities and have certainly not reached a conclusion.
– Will you wait for clarification regarding the financing of Lysaker Park before discussing with them?
– We are dealing with the fact that we have a lease agreement with them today, and will possibly enter into a conversation regardless of what has happened in that matter, says Grefstad. (Terms) Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and/or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases using links, which lead directly to our pages. Copying or other forms of use of all or part of the content may only take place with written permission or as permitted by law. For further terms see here.
2023-07-14 17:08:34
#Storebrand #customers #savings #large #lump #sums
